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Overview

As the famous saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. For many contemporary artists, however, words themselves are an integral part of visual art practice: a powerful tool with which to explore concepts in partnership with — or opposition to — more traditional images.

TEXT brings together prints, paintings and sculptures from the QUT Art Museum’s permanent collection that use text in varied, often surprising ways. In some, words serve to emphasise meaning. In others, meaning is skewed, or obscured, by their inclusion. In others still, the text acts as tactile poetry, where the words themselves are art and the method of display becomes secondary — such as in Shaun O’Conner’s ‘Untitled (INA LA)’, a stark, cryptic message in simple, bold print.

TEXT opens at QUT Art Museum on 11 September, and continues to 8 November.

Image: Madonna Staunton, Numbers game (detail) 2002, metal palette markers, ink bottles and timber box, QUT Art Collection. Purchased 2006 through the Betty Quelhurst Fund.