palimpsest

exhibit on view through November 17, 2013

palimpsest |ˈpalimpˌsest| noun
a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain.

*something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form: Sutton Place is a palimpsest of the taste of successive owners.

DERIVATIVES

palimpsestic |ˌpalimpˈsestik|adjective

ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: via Latin from Greek palimpsēstos, from palin ‘again’ + psēstos ‘rubbed smooth.’

The passing of time can often chip away and make the invisible visible like the walls and hand painted signs on the exteriors of old bodegas in Bed-Stuy, NY, Little Haiti, Miami or Pueblo Libre in Lima, Peru. Likewise, erased texts on classroom chalkboards, their ghosts like layers that overlap, create un-chronological narratives that we’ve all witnessed at one time or another. These visual phenomenons could possibly prompt us to then question or try to fill in, construct the missing fragments whose meaning at times remains partial.Their traces echo our own origins every time we stop and look at those imprints. Sometimes there is a need to layer or veil, to protect, keep out or keep in and reassemble… to reclaim in order to keep from disappearing.