Kay Rosen, "Uh Oh Period, January 20, 2017"

UH OH PERIOD (January 20, 2017) is an orange and blue portrait created out of the letter sounds of that utterance – U and O – plus two periods. Does the figure with its U(h) O(h) features represent a crazy-eyed Trump who is in over his head? Is it us reacting to a future under Trump? Do the periods depict us trapped in a crazy vision in Trump’s head? Or do they mark “the end,” as a period does, or an interminable era of Uh Oh’s?

Text in its physical manifestations such as colour, size and typography, as well as in its structure and infinite semantic possibilities has been artistic source material for Kay Rosen since the 1970s. In the process the studied linguist takes interest in the cultural and political potential of language, examining it with word-play, humour and overstatements, displacement or inversion of meaning. Strongly influenced by experimental dance, music and performance art in early years, Rosen understands language first and foremost as performative exercise, and dealing with it always as an act of hearing, speaking and seeing.  Her work has been exhibited and collected by Aspen Art Museum, FRONT International, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, MCA Chicago, MOCA Los Angeles, MoMA in New York and Whitney Biennial, among others.