Jan BERG
Scribal Images
2006 - 2007
tracing paper, paper, ink

My work can be read as a series of sedimentary layers embedded with a vast history of information. Using a single repeated unit, tiny circles become the building blocks for the images. The solitary unit holds no discernable piece of information but through the construction process, complex systems and forms become evident.

The scribal works are a translation of stories into latitudinal and longitudinal components. The images are read up and down, left to right. Appearing as energy grids, parallel white lines etch downwards while horizontal lines intersect. Rupturing this order opens up a site of pure possibility; a gateway where forms manifest.

Like any investigative core drilling or similar collections of data, the discovered patterns contain anomalies or deviations due to significant life events. The effects of these anomalies on the subsequent pulse of the pattern are only perceived in retrospect.

The transcribing involved in my work is a meditative process where the final point is determined just as much by the image making process as by the content. The circular script flows like seismographic tracings recording a process that is both external and internal. The multi layered work invites a polysemic reading. The repeated patterns of data can be read on a personal or evolutionary level.