Kerry Tribe: Onomatopoeia
2022 | Kerry Tribe: Onomatopoeia reflects the artist’s longstanding interest in consciousness, memory, and the limits of linguistic communication.
Kerry Tribe: Onomatopoeia
January 26−March 27, 2022
A photograph of a shimmering black rock, a group of tropical houseplants, and a set of apple boxes take on new meaning when combined with bold graphic pieces of text. Tribe presents several pairs and multiples that are linked through a series of overlapping ideas, formal qualities, and modalities of communication. At first glance, one may wonder how the works in this exhibition correlate. However, they are carefully selected, placed with intention, and conceptually interconnected.
Onomatopoeia explores consciousness, memory, and the limits of linguistic communication. It questions the ways the human mind makes meaning by interrelating objects, moving images, and words – spoken and written. Tribe combines the language of visual communication and a documentary mode of filmmaking with an interest in semiotics to lay bare the role language plays in shaping our perception and understanding of the world. Simultaneously, several works expose the cognitive confusion that linguistic gaps can cause.
Meaning – or sense making – is constructed in part through language, but is also embodied, experiential and while contextually constituted, highly individuated. Together, the works in Onomatopoeia stretch out as an ecological system, as they signal to one another to build and expand their meaning. Underlying the works lies an ethos of care as the artist expresses her concern for larger societal issues, the natural environment, and love for her family and friends. As such, the works in this exhibit are inherently relational and intensely personal.