Xerox lithographs
March 2016
An ongoing xerox transfer series. The text comes from a story I am in the process of writing; it currently stands at 43 chapters out of an expected 60 total. Using the digital documents of each of the first ten chapters, I replace all of the characters’ names and other identifiable words with black boxes, calling forth symbols of censorship; however here instead of censoring sensitive material or offensive content, I have censored the least controversial text possible, leaving vulnerable the plot of the story. I print all of the text in reverse on an inkjet printer, and then use those sheets of mirrored texts as my printing matrix. The pages are printed onto the final sheet superimposed upon one another, intentionally with a film of stray ink in some places to give the page an overall tone. Each of the final prints contains a full chapter’s worth of text, each page in one of five colors. In the end, the “censor bars” obscure not only the text which they replace, but also text from other pages with which they overlap.
Through these prints I address concepts surrounding censorship; What content is censored? Why? What is lost in the process of censoring? How does censorship affect comprehension of uncensored material? In the use of a sans serif font I hope to center the conversation on internet censorship. I also address vulnerability, particularly my own in displaying an unfinished story publicly, as well as vulnerability of any text to misunderstanding on the part of its readers.
Finally, I hope to break down the imaginary line between “fine art” and “low art”. I do this through the conversation between digital and physical elements, by displaying the subject matter of a fanfiction in a professional art setting, and by installing the work on a table in stacks so that one must handle each page in order to view all of them.
Cas Psallis 