Aidan Moesby :: Text Artist

Salisbury Arts Centre

In December I went to Salisbury Arts Centre to do a talk with Gini and Juan from The View From Here exhibition. It’s strange going to an exhibition where you have work never having seen it. Usually you are there to over see the installation and know how it looks, make a decision about being happy with it, having tweaked, designed, redesigned the show. This time due to budgetary and time constraints I hadn’t had the opportunity to go and install, I had come up with concepts and sent my instructions and intentions to the curator of the show. Then i had sent redesigns and these were passed on in best ‘chinese whispers’ style. Whilst the execution of the text is low-fi I was happy with the hats.

Initially i had sent text to be placed over the stained glass windows of the old church – a new trinity – Ruminate, Gestate, Initiate. Hoever the ambient light just made the text as it was in situ just not workable. The text was moved onto the columns in the cafe.

First Post – An Overview

These days we live in a 24/7 world that never sleeps. We are saturated by images and text yet both have ceased to have any real meaning. The fuller the diaspora gets the emptier it seems. Maybe it’s not devoid of meaning, maybe communication is changing – the how and the what. Language has always evolved. This is further complicated by digital and social media. I am not a native to this landscape as I was recently informed, I am a digital migrant and I am always playing catch up with a culture that is not my ‘first’ – no matter how early I adopt or how much I try and integrate.  This is illustrated by the comparison of this virtual environment with my passion for Letterpress.

My work is all about meaning, trying to make sense of things. Attempting to come to terms and understand our place in the world and the roles we play within it. Oral and visual imagery is key to this and we each have our personal languages, mediated through memory, experience, personal associations. Our personal heritage. This is further layered by our cultural heritage.

A text – an e-mail – a letter. Each is used differently, the words within each, even if similar mean something different, have a different weight, a different impact. The sender and recipient generally know this and understand the code, the unwritten, unspoken rules of engagement.

I hope this site is a location for dialogue, research, inspiration and work.