OK, I will post bit by bit - too much typing for me to do it all at once. Also you can reply to let me know if what I write is helpful. <<Or do those works have a language barrier?
Words incorporated into the painting have a long history springing from the slogans, announcements, advertising, etc. A single word or a short sentence number written/printed or else on the board or any other exclusive display device traditionally has been used to attract viewers attention to an important message it supposedly contained. I believe that this practice had created a "stereotype" of paying increased attention or better words subconscious "respect" to such displays - we read signs, billboards, warnings, price tags even more... we feel uncomfortable when not seeing one. We got used to them, they help us, explain the rules, warn about dangers, call for action.
Now about the "language barrier". I received my formal art education in Moscow (Russia) and as you probably know "plakat" (poster) art has always been one of the major part of the social realism as well as all sorts of slogans and propaganda displays.
Now I live in US and here, in the West, advertising does pretty much the same thing.
I conclude that both cultures have perhaps the same "respect" to the "word on display". I am fluent in Russian and English also little bit understand and read a few other languages written in Cyrillic or Latin letters, but will be completely at loss in China or Yemen, for example. However my eyes will be drawn to the writing like one will look for the ambulance when hearing the familiar sound of the siren.
<<For the Russian it simply reads as
<<God for an English bog means "#####"
<<or "mud" or "stuck in mud" etc.
<<The others were Russian for "fight"
<<transliterated as "boy" and a picture
<<of a boy and girl fighting. Another:
<<Russian "yolk" transliterated as "ego"
<<and a picture of an egg. What does everone
<<think of these? Can you elaborate on
<<these readings?
I do not see much magical or mystical in the effect of words/letters/sentences incorporated into the painting. I see the conceptual intent quite clearly, even when the words and letters are used as a pure abstraction.
In the above case misreading like "bog(god)" for "mud" or "boy" (fight) for "boy when seeing a girls fight" misconception created by misreading is clear - the concept in the "Girls fight" for example the concept and play is based on the traditional (strong in Russia) believe that women are the weak creatures not suitable and unskilled for a real fight, the word "BOY - the actual meaning will be battle between soldiers, not the fight" is used to enhance the impact, playing on the stereotype that war is not the business of the "weak" lady's and fighting women look ridiculous. This, in artists concept, should lead the viewer into seeing that the whole idea of fighting is stupid in general. (I am Russian, so my interpretation should be somehow close to reality, I hope)
I have had a few conceptual exhibitions in the past. One of them was inspired by my trip to Egypt. I had painted 9 canvases two of them were what will be called representational - portrait of a young boy camel rider and another one of a market place, seven others contained one sentence each written with paint squeezed right out of the paint tubes. The whole concept of the exhibition was in the name "Seven rules about the Arab world" sort of an ironic field diary - not in anyway offensive my Egyptian Arab friends laughed madly. But, I had to write the translations under each painting (texts were in Russian) and still associations and contemplation's on the text could be fully understood only by Russians.
Ilia
http://www.truefresco.com/anossov
