A Four Lettered Word - Part One

A Four Lettered Word was inspired by a piece of work that I created for the @lockdownandlight exhibition which took place virtually during the COVID-19 lockdown.

For this virtual open call I created light text which showed the message of 'here' (one of my favourite words to work with, due to its links with time and space and 'nowness'). This was a temporary light installation, captured, uploaded to the internet and then removed.

When considering what to create going forward this Four Lettered project came about.

The two things to overcome are; what word to use - keeping in mind that I have four windows and am therefore limited four letter words (get the title now...). I did not want to use smaller text to include more letterings as readability is key, also by having one letter per window I can easily plan for the spacing between the letters being equal.

The next thing to consider is how to make something that in its nature is temporary into something tangible. They become photos, that is how they exist, but can I elevate them beyond that? The solution here could be prints. This is not something that I have explored before.

The aspect that I have on my side this time around is that it is getting darker much earlier, meaning it should be easier to take photos of the work. Lockdown and Light took place in the summer and outside never seemed to get that dark - darker the outside, brighter the letters.

Word Choice 

I have been working with four lettered words for a while now, as I had been exploring their use within my lino work (again, ruled by the length of the lino). 

Word choice for this outcome could not be random, it needed to be full of meaning and it needed to draw upon our shared public language to make sense to others.

I landed on the word home, it felt fitting as that is where we are spending most of our time. It is simplistic and its reading is open to infinite amounts of interpretation.