In 1980, Braco Dimitrijević built an engraved slab into the pavement outside the Cathedral in Cologne, Germany. This photo was taken in January of 1992. Dimitrijević’s critique of history relies not only on language, the usual fodder of sign systems, but on the forms we … Continue readingThis Could Be a Place of Historical Significance
Owens, Craig. Beyond Recognition (1992) ICI Shelf: Philosophy First Line: “If you take a modernist and draw a line and say, I dare you to cross that line, the modernist will cross it.” ICI History: Today at the ICI — Twitter Feed (12-08-12)
ACCESSION #: ICI-22303 TITLE: “Back Story” by Ryan Tracy and Michael Picón DESCRIPTION: A poster that uses a ‘hole’ graphic to represent the harrowing plight of the 33 Chilean miners (2010) as they wait for rescue. ICI History: Used for HOLES (revisited) Rhizome in the … Continue readingEPHEMERA KABINETT: The Miner’s Paloma
Saussure tells us that no sign makes sense on its own but only in relation to other signs. The value of a sign is determined by the relationship between signs in the system as a whole. He notes the French word mouton could be translated … Continue readingChanged Priorities
This is a nondescript sign on a back road of East Anglia, England. But to anyone who has read W. G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn, this sign might (and it does) announce the site of Alec Girrard’s model of the Temple of Jerusalem. Each … Continue readingTo the Temple
The main entrance of the Great Eastern Hotel in London offers a ‘sign’ that is hidden in plain sight. Even though it was left off the hotel’s official floorplan, three bricked in windows act as a visual sign for a Freemason’s temple built into the … Continue readingThe Sign of the Masons
This permanent memorial at Chimayo, New Mexico evokes the language of the roadside shrine. The permanence of the ceramic calla lilies is undermined by a thin sheet of cellophane wrapped around the bouquet. Its haphazard embrace borrows the language of temporary memorials, those placeholders for … Continue readingFlowers at Chimayo
A small plaque on the side of the Great Eastern Hotel in London marks the site of the old Bethlehem Hospital. The sign obscures the other name for the site. As W. G. Sebald schooled us in Austerlitz, at this same place, “the insane and … Continue readingThis is Bedlam
As a form of written language, the signature is, in theory, a symbolic sign. Its relationship to the person who creates it is arbitrary and based totally on convention and cultural practice. In reality, though, the signature is a very special form of written … Continue readingMax Sebald’s Signature
The Greek word for ‘sign’ is sema, which is also the word for ‘grave.’ For the Greeks the grave was the ur-sign of signification for it ‘stood for’ what it ‘stood in.’ The sema points to something only present through its sign. For Adolf Loos, … Continue readingThe Ur-Sign: a graveyard in East Anglia