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The Exhibition Formerly Known as Passengers: 2.1 Tauba AuerbachPost an Event »

CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts

September 2 - October 5, 2008

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360 Kansas Street San Francisco, CA 94103
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The Exhibition Formerly Known as Passengers: 2.1 Tauba Auerbach
Challenging the systems of language, Tauba Auerbach's artworks reconfigure letters to create word puzzles that lead the viewer to logical but unexpected conclusions. Auerbach has a background in typography and graphic design and an interest in science. Her work is a complex exploration of semiotics, but it retains an essential visual accessibility and playfulness. She dissects language as a code of symbols and a conduit for ideas. Of particular interest to her is the anagram (a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of another), which historically has been utilized to carry secret messages or hidden meanings. Auerbach often bases her work on these sorts of solvable codes or systems. In one of her works, a series of reconfigured typewriters, she alters the keys so that their letters and symbols no longer correspond to what appears on the paper. The typewriters are painted with clues to the logic of their new operating systems; once each code is cracked, the machine becomes functional again.