Before the Invention of Script.
2013. Goldkronach, Germany, 2013.
11.75 x 11.75 inches. Blue and black inked background, with red and white inked calligraphy in both English and German on paper. The piece is partially affixed to a hinged, windowed mat. Fine condition.
§ A work of bilingual calligraphy by German calligrapher Andrea Wunderlich, presenting a passage from The Media is the Massage, the cult 1967 book by Canadian media analyst and philosopher Marshall McLuhan. In alternating lines of white and red script, Wunderlich renders the text in German and in an English translation from the German (differing slightly from the original English text).
McLuhan's central thesis was that new forms of media change the perceptions of society more so than the content they convey. The self-consciously chosen passage describes the invention of writing: "Before the invention of script, man lived in an acoustic space: free, unambitious, without horizon, in a darkness of spirit, in a world of feelings, controlled by instinct, by terror. Speech is the social expression of this insecure surface, of this swamp. The quill stopped all this cackling. It abolished the mysterious, it created architecture and cities, it brought up streets, armies and bureaucracy. The hand that filled the parchment with script built the city. M. McLuhan"
"Andrea Wunderlich has worked as a calligrapher since 2003. Together with her husband Volker Wunderlich, painter and specialist for historic painting techniques and restoration, she runs a studio at the Old Firestation in Goldkronach, Bavaria, where she also teaches workshops. Andrea has received a cultural award from the county of Bayreuth (Bavaria) in 2010, and her work is part of the collection of the Museum for Contemporary Calligraphy in Moscow. Together with her husband, she created two huge wall calligraphies in Russia, one at the 1st Int. Calligraphy Exhibition in St. Petersburg and another at the Museum in Moscow, both in 2008. She is a member of the Schreibwerkstatt Klingspor in Offenbach, Ars Scribendi and CLAS in London." (Excerpted from atelierwunderlich.de). Item #108088
Price: $475.00