September 1, 1939
$75.00 USD
Artist: Christina Martinelli
6 color screenprint on French 100lb cover, 2019
Signed and Numbered edition of 135
DEFENCELESS UN- / DER THE NIGHT / OUR WORLD IN / STUPOR LIES YET / DOTTED EVERY- / WHERE IRONIC / POINTS OF LIGHT / FLASH OUT WHER- / EVER THE JUST / EXCHANGE THEIR / MESSAGES MAY I / COMPOSED LIKE / THEM OF EROS AND / OF DUST BELEAG- / UERED BY THE / SAME NEGATION / AND DESPAIR, SHOW / AN AFFIRMING / FLAME W.H. AUDEN / SEPTEMBER 1 1939
The basis of this print is the last stanza of W.H. Auden’s poem ‘September 1, 1939,’ a poem which deeply resonates with me, translated into a drawn version of Semaphore flag signaling. Much of my recent work is interested in communicating language through abstract yet decipherable code, providing a covenant between the work and the viewer that time spent with an image can lead to decipherability. By presenting the words as images I am proposing that the viewer see the inherent musicality, and universality, of words and the written language.