Ghost Ships and Palimpsests

Here is the image that is currently in progression. I have two states, a week apart, as we see Nigel battling with this new and versatile medium.

The inspiration for the subject of this image is from Nigel reading about Derrida's Mystic writing pad. In this article Derrida writes of a pad which can be written or drawn on and then erased. Though after erasing there is always an element of what was previously there left behind. This concept has held a long term interest for Nigel as his work has always been about examining and developing surfaces. For example in his early wax works (in the 1990s) Nigel would often put early bold layers of bright colours, writing and images that would be almost entirely subdued by the following layer of subtle wax. To see the layers in the final image is always a challenge though the images have an almost uneasiness as they are haunted by their own past.

This concept of Derrida's pertains to, the much thought over, idea of the palimpsest. Used as a metaphor throughout much and differing theory, palimpsest has been used to explain the development and imposing of languages among other things.



"A palimpsest is a manuscript page, whether from scroll or book that has been written on, scraped off, and used again. The word "palimpsest" comes through Latin from Greek παλιν + ψαω = ("again" + "I scrape"), and meant "scraped (clean and used) again." Romans wrote on wax-coated tablets that could be smoothed and reused, and a passing use of the rather bookish term "palimpsest" by Cicero seems to refer to this practice."
To a large extent the work that Nigel is doing, in technique and application is itself somewhat of a palimpsest. As layers are placed one on top of the other, scraping back and re-doing, until an image is complete.

Though in this latest image Nigel is literally creating a palimpsest of languages in the bottom segment of the image. Under the world as we perceive it, in its both flat and spherical conceptions, lies the history of language.

In the detail below you can see the first two stages of the palimpsest. At the base in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs on top of which is a segment from the bible in Hebrew. The following two layers yet to be added are traditional Chinese characters and finally modern English.

The words and characters are not only scribed onto the canvas but also carved and scraped into the surface of the wax layers. In this way the languages are able to appear, disappear and reappear at different layers.

This use of metaphor and literal representation of languages relates to the symbolic images above them: the ship (soon to be a ghost ship), the map, the globe and the landscape. All of these objects speak of time, history and legacy. Perhaps referencing the history of colonisation of cultures, 'foreign' lands and languages.

This image is enacting and repeating the complex and thorough mark-making, both dangerous and wonderful, that has gone on throughout human history.