Phase One: November 20, 2021 - January 15, 2022
Between the 1st and 2nd Floors
Between the 2nd and 3rd Floors
Between the 3rd and 4th Floors
Phase Two: January 15 - February 6, 2022
Between the 1st and 2nd Floors
Between the 2nd and 3rd Floors
Between the 3rd and 4th Floors
Prepositions such as “OF” are often referred to morphologically as “empty words” (vs. “full words”), semiotic signs vital but functioning almost invisibly. Like a very small machine part, such a word is often overlooked, or taken from granted, but in its absence the machinery of meaning’s production grinds to a halt, leaving adjacent nouns stalled or stymied, as if floating in the empty air.
Phase One (November 20, 2021 - January 15, 2022): For this “writing on air” installation, a tall column of 15 “OF’s” extended from the first floor to the fourth inside of the stairway of UNF’s Thomas G. Carpenter Library. Printed onto transparent acetate, those large words (each letter around 2’ x 2’) were attached one atop the other onto the windows looking out onto the panoramic scene before them, each word positioned into the metal grid of the window’s frame.
Moving between the first and second floors of the library and seen directly adjacent to the first column of five “OF’s” was the phrase “PRE / POSITIONED / SIGHT.” Onto the second and third floors, and again adjacent to the next five “OF’s,” were the words “PICTURED / INTO / PLACE.” Next, climbing to the top floor, and coming onto the final five “OF’s,” were two words, “EMPTY / WORD”; or, looking closely (and seeing the transparent and hollow “L” discreetly placed between the “R” and the “D”), “EMPTY / WORD” was now read as “EMPTY / WOR[L]D,” marking a significant shift in what was seen, or seen through.
Phase Two (January 15 - February 6, 2022): Nearly two months into this installation, an adjustment occurred, a paring down of the words on the windows. While the tall column of “OF’s” remained in place, suddenly, between the first and second floors “PRE / POSITIONED / SIGHT” had been reduced to “SIGHT” alone; between the second and third floors “PICTURED / INTO / PLACE” became the single word “PLACE”; while, ascending to the top, “EMPTY / WOR[L]D” had become simply ”WOR[L]D,” its modifier vanishing from view.
Through it all, that unchanged column of “OF’s” functioned as a kind of semiotic scaffolding, or a linguistic ladder. While mounting the stairs, a viewer saw through the library’s windows that enduring prepositional assertion of focus and placement...empty words opening onto the fullness of the world beyond them.
Phase One (November 20, 2021 - January 15, 2022): For this “writing on air” installation, a tall column of 15 “OF’s” extended from the first floor to the fourth inside of the stairway of UNF’s Thomas G. Carpenter Library. Printed onto transparent acetate, those large words (each letter around 2’ x 2’) were attached one atop the other onto the windows looking out onto the panoramic scene before them, each word positioned into the metal grid of the window’s frame.
Moving between the first and second floors of the library and seen directly adjacent to the first column of five “OF’s” was the phrase “PRE / POSITIONED / SIGHT.” Onto the second and third floors, and again adjacent to the next five “OF’s,” were the words “PICTURED / INTO / PLACE.” Next, climbing to the top floor, and coming onto the final five “OF’s,” were two words, “EMPTY / WORD”; or, looking closely (and seeing the transparent and hollow “L” discreetly placed between the “R” and the “D”), “EMPTY / WORD” was now read as “EMPTY / WOR[L]D,” marking a significant shift in what was seen, or seen through.
Phase Two (January 15 - February 6, 2022): Nearly two months into this installation, an adjustment occurred, a paring down of the words on the windows. While the tall column of “OF’s” remained in place, suddenly, between the first and second floors “PRE / POSITIONED / SIGHT” had been reduced to “SIGHT” alone; between the second and third floors “PICTURED / INTO / PLACE” became the single word “PLACE”; while, ascending to the top, “EMPTY / WOR[L]D” had become simply ”WOR[L]D,” its modifier vanishing from view.
Through it all, that unchanged column of “OF’s” functioned as a kind of semiotic scaffolding, or a linguistic ladder. While mounting the stairs, a viewer saw through the library’s windows that enduring prepositional assertion of focus and placement...empty words opening onto the fullness of the world beyond them.
Thomas G. Carpenter library
University of North Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
November 2021 - February 2022
University of North Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
November 2021 - February 2022
Many thanks to Samantha Morden and Noah Lunberry for assistance with the installation.
Copyright © 2022 Clark Lunberry. All rights reserved.