Daniel Lehan
I Went Quietly
She Went
Artist Statement
The first erasure texts I made were on the front pages of the METRO newspaper.
I wondered if it was possible to find in the text describing a national or world event, words I could use as a diary to record my thoughts or actions for that particular day, covering up the ‘unwanted’ words with white paint.
Since then I have erased text, occasionally images, in a variety of ways, with paint, erasers, pens, by tearing and with scissors, and removing text with scalpel blades. Also by using a typewriter with no ribbon, the metal keys damaging / destroying the text and sometimes the paper.
I like the physicality of altering text. The covering up or removal of words. When using scalpel blades, the removal of words and paper could be regarded by some, as sacrilegious - attacking a work of literature. I am struck, however, by how a destroyed page has a frailty, often a beauty, having survived such a ‘creative’ attack.
A consequence of removing text, is the increase in the amount of ‘empty’ space around any text remaining. This removal, feels to me like something being ‘released’ of something ‘opening up’ akin to light in a painting, a space for the eye to consider these ‘floating’ words ( no longer held in sequential order ) differently.
Working with erasures, I am taken with the idea and process of absence, the absence of something that was. The challenge is to create texts which alter the sense and meaning, even the subject, of the source material. One I have in mind - to take, say, a car manual and create from this a love story.
The first erasure texts I made were on the front pages of the METRO newspaper.
I wondered if it was possible to find in the text describing a national or world event, words I could use as a diary to record my thoughts or actions for that particular day, covering up the ‘unwanted’ words with white paint.
Since then I have erased text, occasionally images, in a variety of ways, with paint, erasers, pens, by tearing and with scissors, and removing text with scalpel blades. Also by using a typewriter with no ribbon, the metal keys damaging / destroying the text and sometimes the paper.
I like the physicality of altering text. The covering up or removal of words. When using scalpel blades, the removal of words and paper could be regarded by some, as sacrilegious - attacking a work of literature. I am struck, however, by how a destroyed page has a frailty, often a beauty, having survived such a ‘creative’ attack.
A consequence of removing text, is the increase in the amount of ‘empty’ space around any text remaining. This removal, feels to me like something being ‘released’ of something ‘opening up’ akin to light in a painting, a space for the eye to consider these ‘floating’ words ( no longer held in sequential order ) differently.
Working with erasures, I am taken with the idea and process of absence, the absence of something that was. The challenge is to create texts which alter the sense and meaning, even the subject, of the source material. One I have in mind - to take, say, a car manual and create from this a love story.
Daniel Lehan studied Fine Art at Winchester School of Art, England, and later studied Art Therapy at Goldsmiths College, London. His work has been published in various print and online poetry Journals including 3:AM, Whiptail, Arteidolia, star82 review, The New Post-Otoliths, Ink Sweat and Tears, Ballast, M58, and Word For/Word. His text - Book Pages Destroyed By Typewriter - is included in The New Concrete, Visual Poetry in the 21st Century, published by Hayward Publishing.