Sarah Hulsey: Language Arts
Nov
4
5:30 PM17:30

Sarah Hulsey: Language Arts

  • 77 Mt Vernon Street Boston, Massachusetts 02108 (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Sarah Hulsey’s artwork is concerned with the architecture underpinning language, those elegant structures that exist only in the mind. Language is a deeply human trait used in every aspect of our lives, though its workings are largely mysterious to us as speakers. She was first drawn to the analytical components of language through a visual device: hierarchical tree diagrams used to study syntax. The information contained in them resonated as much as the rhythmic, orderly nesting and branching visual groupings. Through artist’s books, drawings, and prints, Hulsey creates visual correlates of linguistic structures, looking for beauty and resonance in the rich patterns that emerge.

In this talk, she will discuss several projects, including Figures of Speech, a piece to be featured in an upcoming exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts; her most recent artist’s book edition Allochronologies, which explores alternate notions of time through the lens of the book object; and her current project exploring neolithic counting tokens from Mesopotamia. These small clay objects are thought to be the precursors to cuneiform writing, opening up a fascinating view into the earliest known encoding of information for record keeping.

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Tatiana Gómez Gaggero and José Menéndez: Inked Territories: Reactivating Letterforms and Collective Memory across Latin America
Oct
7
5:30 PM17:30

Tatiana Gómez Gaggero and José Menéndez: Inked Territories: Reactivating Letterforms and Collective Memory across Latin America

  • 77 Mt Vernon Street Boston, Massachusetts 02108 (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Tatiana Gómez Gaggero and José R. Menéndez discuss Gráfica Latina, a print, digital, and mobile archive documenting the typographic landscapes of Latin America. Their talk explores how designers, graphic artists, and printers across the region have developed expressive vernacular letterforms in response to local technologies, materials, social conditions, and cultural traditions. 

Beyond the archive, Gráfica Latina reactivates these forms through workshops, exhibitions, and collaborations in community and academic spaces. By connecting archival research with contemporary printing practices, their talk considers print as a social practice and positions designers, graphic artists, and printers as interpreters and guardians of collective memory. 

Tatiana Gómez Gaggero is a graphic designer, educator, and Associate Professor of communication Design at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Her research and design practice examine design as a platform for multilingual and multicultural communication. 

José R. Menéndez is a graphic designer, educator, and Assistant Professor in Graphic Design and Architecture at Northeastern University. His research and design practice explore community engagement, public-space narratives, and Latin American graphic design. 

Together, they are the founding partners of the Providence-based Buena Gráfica Studio, and the designers and curators of the traveling exhibition series “Graphic Voices of Latin America.”

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Pilgrimage to The John Stevens Shop with Nick Benson
Sep
19
10:00 AM10:00

Pilgrimage to The John Stevens Shop with Nick Benson

For our fall pilgrimage, we will visit The John Stevens Shop with owner and creative director Nick Benson. Founded in 1705, The John Stevens Shop is one of the oldest continuously run businesses in the United States. The shop is internationally recognized for the design and creation of architectural and memorial stone inscriptions.

Third-generation stone carver and letterer Nick Benson has run the John Stevens Shop since 1993. He is the 2024 recipient of an honorary Doctorate from the Rhode Island School of Design and a 2007 National Heritage Fellowship. In 2010 he was named a MacArthur Fellow. His designs can be found on the National Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, the National World War II Memorial, and Harvard, Yale, and Brown University Buildings, among many others.

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