mixed message
A BUTCHER'S #44
A BUTCHER’S hook/look (Cockney rhyming slang)
scramble
This is so good - spotted while on my bike in Brooklyn. The locked bicycle echoing the scrambled lettering is a nice bonus.
Images should open better in the app - in the meantime, try this link
crypto
Being creatively minded and good at mathematics, Nino was encouraged to take a test and from that, he was recruited to become a code breaker (yes, just like in the film ‘The Imitation Game’ about the Enigma Code). He loved cryptology, telling us when he retired that he’d looked forward to going to work - every single day. Now that’s impressive. He revealed his code name to us later.
Keeping himself amused he’d create his own sudoku puzzles (that were too hard to solve) and creating artwork. These, he based on the infinite triangular array (binomial theorem) known as Pascal’s Triangle. more on that if you need
(Nino was Anna’s dad and I’m glad to have known him!)
Caesar salad
In keeping with my recent Roman excursions, one of the earliest use of a coded message is known as the Caesar cipher - that was created by Julius Caesar to send messages to his Generals in battle. The system itself is straightforward but it worked well - if the coded message fell into enemy hands, it made no sense to them. It helped that their adversaries were mostly an illiterate bunch.
Two alphabets written out on two concentric circles (or lines), then shift one, say 5 letters to the right, so when lined up, ‘A’ becomes ‘E’, ‘B’ becomes ‘F’, and so on…
RSA CSY ORSA - s’easy
More on codes & ciphers at a later date - compelling stuff!
re-structured
anarchy in order - The only thing that holds a paint-by-number painting is the tone of the painted areas. If that structure is disrupted, a new world is waiting. Here I randomly re-assigned the 42 ordered numbers of the paints and then completed the painting - basically a visual Caesar Cipher.
Each piece is one of a finite edition of the possible number/color combinations. The consequential tonal breakdown of the image switches the viewers attention to the process of the painting itself and the original purely decorative function is subverted.
broken loose
It’s always worth getting up close to work by Leslie Roberts. Sourcing from every variety of the written word (from lists of all sorts to instruction manuals, texts to personal Ads etc) she parses this vernacular material and ‘diagrams language into paint’ - excellent!
‘I Will Console You With Language’ is currently showing at 57W57 - a small, very well curated gallery in a psychiatrists office with a great view overlooking New York Public Library. Check times before going.
the place to go
where ‘nothing fits!’
or as they must have been thinking ‘when’ nothing fits? A ‘mixed message’ of another kind. One of those old school clothes shops with a name that just makes you wonder….
Note that on the sign there’s even a girl in a baggy rumpled sweater having difficulty doing up her jeans!
re-structured:
A really fascinating approach that challenges perception, hovering between the expressionistic and the abstract. It would be interesting to see the entire sequence. Francesco
Steve, this is excellent! Wonderful to see Nino’s amazing art. He was a man of many talents.