Asemic Writing

Asemic writing is script-like marks that have no discernible meaning beyond their perceived visual aesthetic value. As with abstract art, it is up to the viewer to interpret. Asemic writing was a part of several twentieth-century art movements, Dada, Surrealism, Russian Futurism, Tachisme, CoBrA, and Fluxus. Asemic writing is particularly associated with Fluxus visual and concrete poetry. MutualArt definition: Asemic writing is closer to art than to writing. The word “asemic” comes from the same root as the word “semantic”, i.e., that which is a-semic has no semantic meaning.

I am drawn to Medieval manuscript illuminations, Persian and East Indian miniature paintings (Mughal Dynasty 1526–1858) where image and text are combined. In these paintings based on that format, I have used asemic writing and glyphs to stand in for the writing. I painted strips of asemic writing and incorporated them as collage elements in the paintings.