At the centre of Chantal Kaufmann's artistic practice is the relationship between language and image and the question of the linguistic-visual production of meaning between author and recipient. Guided by an interest in aesthetics of the pre-linguistic and a critique of logocentrism as a Western ‘imperialism of the logos’, Kaufmann's practice deals with the conditions and mechanisms of subject constitution and the possibilities of transcending rational subjectivity. Her work often refers to linguistic innovations of the literary avant-garde and feminist theories that ‘make a work out of language’ (Julia Kristeva), working their way through various levels of the semiotic: Gesture, rhythm, intonation, laughter. Thereby language is always tied to a material reality.

Playing with the formal juxtaposition of visual elements and text-based content, Kaufmann's practice moves between different media - including video, serial printing processes, music and painting. For the exhibition at Kunstraum MEMPHIS, Kaufmann is realizing a series of new works that use visual strategies of appropriation, repetition and rhythmisation, assemblage and cut-up to transfer logics inherent in language to the production of images and emphasise the interplay between visual rhythm and linguistic structure.

The works for ‘A is a guess and a piece’ - the title of the exhibition is taken from a poem by Gertrude Stein and refers to Stein's pictorial distortion of linguistic meaning - revolve around the concept of intertextuality. This is understood not only as a literary process, but also as an intermedial connection between film, music/radio and image/painting, which act as integral components of the social order of representation. By absorbing and relating different texts and reference media, Kaufmann opens up a space in which her material work with language is intersected by the various intertexts and readings of the recipients in order to evade a clear definition of meaning.

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Chantal Kaufmann

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→ Audio "To be closer to" on archive.org

→ Floor plan

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With kind support of Pro Helvetia, Schweizer Kulturstiftung.