How It All Relates Is Like the Honey Bee
“It’s like honey bees … you go from flower to flower … little bits, different things … and you
make honey … you relate things no one else might think to see.” --- Adam Daley Wilson
This inscription piece may be seen as both reflecting and documenting the artist’s
early wonderings about the possibility of post-theory art. It is one of his more
traditional inscribed paintings, comprised of layers of legible text in his personal
writing system—until those layers of legibility become illegibility to the point of
abstraction. It sets forth a cohesive theory, in traditional sentences, if it were
placed on paper and not inscribed. Somatically, the piece may result in body-felt
participation, as the viewer’s eyes scan, see a recognized letter, and perhaps a
recognizable word. Emotionally, the piece may result in feelings from urgency to
Zen. Visually, the piece references Cy Twombly’s layered calligraphic scribbles, the
tradition of asemic writing, and, indirectly, abstractionism. As possible post-theory
art, the piece asks the question whether an artist’s head, heart, and body are
enough—or whether viewers themselves must then experience the same or similar
as to that of the artist, even if vicariously, even if only for a moment.
“It’s like honey bees … you go from flower to flower … little bits, different things … and you
make honey … you relate things no one else might think to see.” --- Adam Daley Wilson
This inscription piece may be seen as both reflecting and documenting the artist’s
early wonderings about the possibility of post-theory art. It is one of his more
traditional inscribed paintings, comprised of layers of legible text in his personal
writing system—until those layers of legibility become illegibility to the point of
abstraction. It sets forth a cohesive theory, in traditional sentences, if it were
placed on paper and not inscribed. Somatically, the piece may result in body-felt
participation, as the viewer’s eyes scan, see a recognized letter, and perhaps a
recognizable word. Emotionally, the piece may result in feelings from urgency to
Zen. Visually, the piece references Cy Twombly’s layered calligraphic scribbles, the
tradition of asemic writing, and, indirectly, abstractionism. As possible post-theory
art, the piece asks the question whether an artist’s head, heart, and body are
enough—or whether viewers themselves must then experience the same or similar
as to that of the artist, even if vicariously, even if only for a moment.
