HYLAND
Jacques Lacan insisted that dreams, the productions
of the unconscious, must be read "to the letter," as
opposed to being interpreted according to the symbolic
archetypes posited by Carl Jung.
"Kylix" explores, fittingly through the medium of a
miniature, the meaning of the Letter, both as missive
and alphabetical cipher. The visual presence of words
means as much to me as their sound; hence my intrigue
with typography and books as physical entities, the
tangible link between words and the things they purport
to represent. The "Kylix" represents much more: the cup
as female symbol, hieroglyph of the womb, in this case
containing meanings kept for a long time secret even by
their writers, the secrets of seduction, of violation, and
of what Freud called "the darker continent": the vast
uncharted mystery of female sexuality.
Another work at PULSE comes to mind as I write these
words, one as monumental and open as Beube's "Kylix"
is small and hermetic, though no less mysterious.
Shown by the Camilla Grimaldi Gallery, photographer
Jackie Nickerson records people, especially women, in
a variety of social contexts: her 2007 book Faith explored
the hidden world of the religious orders of Ireland; her
2002 book Farm—and a 2014 body of work "Terrain"--
captures both men and women farm workers in South
Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Kenya, their faces often
elided from the portraits, identity and gender marked
