FLUID TIME exhibition artist | TOM ROSENTHAL
I find that the theme of “Fluid Time” fits very well with my methods of working and thought process. With the paintings I have submitted, I have just begun to scratch the surface of the many different ways time can be felt and expressed in words and in colors in both English and Chinese. Twilight, Daytime and Night are some of the aspects of time as experienced and described by humans on this planet that are addressed in this series. This group juxtaposes a few different expressions of time with Chinese characters (时，时间，长长久久）interacting with the English word, “Time”，as well as small triptych that makes abstract compositions of the Chinese words for, “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” (昨天，今天， 明天) other examples of words that describe expressions of time.
Though I’ve had formal training in advertising art and graphic design, I was never attracted to the sales aspect of the discipline, but rather, I was fascinated by the formal, compositional aspects, especially the use of typography, letters and words as images. My art is rooted in graphic design and typography/text manipulation. Words and letterforms make very effective art building blocks because of their formal qualities, the way they divide space, their intrinsic balance of positive/negative, straight, and curved lines/shapes. They also have a directness of communication. There are few faster ways to make a statement or express a point than actually spelling it out. When I began to learn Chinese, working with Chinese immigrant labor in construction and carpentry, I was very excited to add a whole new arsenal of letterforms. The ideographic nature of written Chinese can make for fast communication of simple ideas as a single character, rather than being merely a sound component, is a complete abstract concept. Some of my most recent work explores what happens when both writing systems are used simultaneously, interactively as design elements and the crossover of Chinese and American cultures, putting traditional writing systems in non-traditional contexts.
