2013
Character Profile At Root Division
Jacques Lacan
Character Profile
Group Show at Root Division
Curated By Jon Fischer
July 10-27, 2013
Drawing from a cross disciplinary group of twenty-six collaborators from across the country including writers, visual artists, and craftspeople, Character Profile investigates novel functions of language through a broad range of materials, media and approaches. Many of these works are dedicated to a spirit of engagement and play. The exhibition highlights art designed for direct interaction with visitors and work that provokes expanded meanings and alternative associations. These artists present language as both a medium and a subject, and deftly maneuver words to both convey and critique meaning.
Participating Artists
Amy Ahlstrom Kirkman Amyx Erin Bregman Lanell Dike Arash Fayez Jon Fischer Jonathan Frey Heather Gordon Jon Gourley* Benjamin Hill | Clint Imboden Mike Kimball Helen Lee Yuki Maruyama John Patrick McKenzie Janice Miyagi Trevor Parham Meryl Pataky Kyle Peets Kristin Roeder | Allyson Seal Laurie Szujewska Nowell Valeri David Wolf Nanette Wylde Amber Jean Young Daniel Yovino * Root Division Studio Artist |
Exhibition Wings
In the Twentieth century, some of the world’s greatest thinkers made it their life work to unlock the mystery of human communication. Their goal was essentially an explanation of every language that ever existed in all of human history. The resulting theory identifies language as an imaginary structure in our mind, in which there are two primary phenomena:
- Replacement/Metaphor: In which individual things we wish to talk about are assigned their own individual word, symbol, sound, or any other kind of unique sign.
- Combination/Metonomy: In which we convey complex ideas by combining our words, symbols, sounds, signs together.

But as languages evolve over time, overlaps, glitches, and mistakes abound. In this imperfect system, context is everything.
• A signifier: the form which the sign takes:

• The signified: the concept it represents:
You may enter the business.
Signs take the form of words, images, sounds, odors, flavors, acts or objects, but such things have no intrinsic meaning and become signs only when we invest them with meaning. As modern culture becomes increasingly saturated with media images, new cultural forms and expressions, consumerist trends and needs, there has been a remarkable proliferation of signs. Many scientists, artists, psychologists, and philosophers have described the signifier-sign pattern operating in areas outside of language. Some very smart people have begun to wonder if the exponential pace of modernity is thrusting us so deep into the world of signs we might become trapped.Character Profile Journal
Favor de agarrar uno.
Comprehensive tour of “Character Profile” at Root Division, an exhibition featuring projects that explore intersections between the forms, mechanisms and meanings of language.
There is absolutely no educational requirement for being published.
Here is a sneak peak of noted gluten artist Ben Hill‘s Toasted Puns, installed at Root Division for our language-art …
He often plays the peacemaker between McCain and the senators McCain has offended.
Character Profile at Root Division is installed, open, and ready for the masses. It really couldn’t have turned out better. …
Dress up like your favorite Star Wars characters, help us find “Yoda” around the ballpark.
Here are some more photos from some Character Profile projects. Ben’s Hill‘s Toasted Puns how have a title bun. This …
How about if we interrupt the program every millisecond to update the timer and the display?
Ben Hill‘s toasted puns are coming in from our eight lettering artists. I toasted, shrink-wrapped, and tagged the first set …
If product is heated, vapors generated can cause headache, nausea, dizziness and possible respiratory irritation if inhaled in high concentrations
Check out this studio photograph from my upcoming instructional pamphlet: How not to embed one buffalo wing in clear epoxy …
He lights a fire within me.
Know anyone who wants to help me and Ben create a wall of Toasted Puns? Please pass on this link …
From TV host to fierce defender of scientific issues.
With a fierce commitment to words and play, the curation of my upcoming group show Character Profile is going to …
You may have wondered if a backyard fire pit is legal.
“Character Profile: New Works in Language, Text, and Wordplay” Curated by Jon Fischer Opening Reception Saturday July 13 7-10PM (one …
The loudest voice will be the voice that speaks for those who lost their voices.
Last year I decided that I wanted to focus on art that features wordplay. To facilitate this, I arranged to …
At that point, we can steer the project into much more “bio-oriented” waters.
Allow me to share this triumphant piece of paper. This is my signed, unsealed, and delivered contract to curate the …