1911, Barcelona, Spain–2005, Coro, Venezuela

The Spanish-born Venezuelan artist and archaeologist José María Cruxent spent time in London during the 1960s, moving within avant-garde circles before leaving for Jamaica. In Métromane (meaning a mania for writing verse), he combines modern avant-garde experimentation with the suggestion of an archaeological, pre-literate past. A dark metal mesh laid over a text-based collage creates a moiré effect in which letters shift with the viewer’s position. Are you trying to decipher what the mesh conceals? Cruxent disrupts our training in literacy and our expectation that script should carry semantic meaning: the text beneath is nonsensical.

William Allen Collection