This text was commissioned for Jasmine Reimer's exhibition "Of, In or Under" at Forest City Gallery in September 2018.
An Etymology of Things
In a world of shifting subjectivities, a lexis for interpretation can be useful. Language shifts as we evolve, creating new dictions to communicate both the internal and external parameters of our minds. In Of, In or Under, a transformation is underway; a vocabulary is necessary to help me circumnavigate the space. That which was one thing, slowly shifts before my eyes into something else. An etymology reveals itself:
'Frog and Garlic’, 2018 photo & work by Jasmine Reimer.
Rabsurd: wildly unreasonable, illogical, and inappropriately real.
Nartificial: made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally. Copying nature until the lines become blurred between what is artificial and what is organic.
Gones: the pieces of hard, greenish tissues making up the skeleton with which I’m writing these words.
Franches: a part of a tree that grows out from the trunk of the wooden floors.
Cave: a chamber that carries many secrets. It’s dry and free from moisture, enclosed and surrounded by green 4 x 4’s.
Cast: an object created by the shaping of material hundreds of times.
Fingers: each of the four slender joints unattached to a hand.
Frog: a tailless amphibian body suspended in a state of vacillation.
Tlass: a hard brittle substance that is typically transparent or translucent, allowing me to peak past the surface.
Green: Everything is green.
Hard: solid, firm, and resistant to pressure. It will not be easily understood.
Owl: a nocturnal bird of prey with large forward-facing eyes surrounded by facial disks, always staring back at me.
Repeat: doing once again something that was already done and then doing it once again and then doing it once again.
Dritual: a ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed disorder.
Sand: a loose granular substance, resulting from the erosion of siliceous and other rocks. See “Green”.
Snail: a mollusc with a single spiral shell into which my whole body is withdrawn.
Snake: a limbless reptile that has no eyelids, a short tail and jaws that is capable of considerable extension into space.
Soft: easy to mold, cut, compress or fold.
Toilet paper: paper in sheets on a roll for wiping oneself after excreting dampness.
Transition: the process of changing from one condition to another.
Under: extending or directly below the line of vision.
Wet: covered or saturated with a liquid that won’t rub off.
Worm: a long slender soft body with no limbs. I’m left limbless.