Leah Huang

Bits and Pieces

Exploring the art of calligraffiti to create works centered around the idea of illegibility and removed from the need for academic jargon as justification.

.

The art of ‘calligraffiti’ combines calligraphic letterforms and graffiti to create images using pieces of the letterforms as marks. The result looks as if it could be a written language, but it is not. This trait of being illegible allows people to see the art without trying to decipher the text first and missing the purpose of the piece. Much too often art falls into a dependency of academic jargon as a means of justification for its existence. There is an expectation for this justification; for there to be a single answer to the meaning of a work of art. We indulge in overanalysis to find this to the point of creating an answer to fit the piece instead; human nature longs for legibility. As such, the goal for my thesis project was to create art that was removed from needing this justification of legibility. Being illegible forces people to see the art instead of the letters. There are no words to decipher a ‘true meaning’ because there is none.

Website: leahcatherinehuang.com