do the write thing 2
read between the lines
What, then, occurs “in the interval between the legible and the visible” – as Michel Thevoz calls it – or in what Dubuffet called “implicit languages”?
What, then, occurs “in the interval between the legible and the visible” – as Michel Thevoz calls it – or in what Dubuffet called “implicit languages”?
What happens when meaning hides under a profusion of signs? When, in writing a drawing or drawing writing, it is no longer a matter of speaking, by any means available. With the risk, surely, that this metalanguage will traverse the sky without reaching any target. Making it more obvious than anything else that its author was surely the target. Unless, unless one of us crosses that path, ready to be moved by this soliloquy, ready to understand, to literally incorporate this semantic surge that resembles the “Babelian drive” that Eric Dussert discusses in our exhibit catalogue. And that person would de facto become the providential recipient of this sibylline surge, not as an exceptional cryptographer, but as someone who could find all of the possibilities for expression within himself. Equally capable of feeling the evocative power of the ideogram, image inseparable from text, like in time immemorial, or of taking joy in the ramblings in which science and poetry saunter. Or even of experiencing the graphorrhea’s little melodies that unfold like mantras.
Rhythm and composition, constantly in tension, seem to want to reveal a new meaning, something primal, like a cry. Besides, since we’re discussing outbursts of voices, shouldn’t we also discuss outbursts of signs? In this way, all glossography would appear not as an inability to master linguistic codes, but rather as the profound manifestation of an urgency, paired with the need to escape reductive conventions. This major divergence allowing whomever carries it out to cut across unexplored paths capable of providing new responses to unresolved questions. When it is not only a question of shielding the mystery or the sacred things that could appear there against profane incursions.
What is deafening then, in these palimpsests, these magical cyphers, these vehement imprecations, these sedimented words, these hypnotic iterations, these secret terms, is the formidable plasticity of a primordial language that seems to contain them all.
![portrait de Beverly Baker - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/beverly-baker/5312c43553-1608547167/beverly-baker-portrait-400x.jpg)
![portrait of giovanni bosco - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/giovanni-bosco/fec6aab5c1-1608547167/giovanni-bosco-avec-pinceau-400x.jpg)
![portrait - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/anibal-brizuela/51fae46969-1608547167/anibal-brizuela-portrait-400x.jpg)
![Fernand Desmoulin - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/fernand-desmoulin/4b9f6572d5-1608547167/portrait-desmoulin-400x.jpg)
![portrait of john devlin - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/john-devlin/040ceb3795-1608547167/portrait-john-devlin-400x.jpg)
![portrait of josé manuel egea - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/jose-manuel-egea/2fa730d6b6-1608547167/portrait-egea-en-loup-garou-400x.jpg)
![johann fischer - © Johann Feilacher, christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/johann-fischer/eff0558c2f-1608547167/portrait-fischer-c-feilacher-400x.jpg)
![portrait of pepe gaitàn - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/pepe-gaitan/c78b410c4c-1608547167/portrait-pepe-gaitan-400x.jpg)
![portrait of jill gallieni - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/jill-gallieni/f572cb0b5a-1608547167/portrait-jill-gallieni-400x.jpg)
![Anton Hirschfeld - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/anton-hirschfeld/ff1c0d6e97-1608547167/anton-hirschfeld-400x.jpg)
![faun playing flute (untitled), circa 1890. black ink and graphite on paper , 8.27 x 11.42 in - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/emile-josome-hodinos/87cd3ab71e-1608547167/hod002-400x.jpg)
![josef hofer drawing - © © florian moser, christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/josef-hofer/98333364b0-1608547167/portrait-josef-hofer-c-florian-moser-400x.jpg)
![john urho kemp - © anonymous, christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/john-urho-kemp/629eda5e9d-1608547167/kemp-by-anonymous-photographer-400x.jpg)
![portrait - © © Mario del Curto, christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/zdenek-kosek/13c4d90b9d-1608547167/zdenek-kosek-400x.jpg)
![Joseph Lambert - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/joseph-lambert/78b128c972-1608547167/joseph-lambert-portrait-400x.jpg)
![kunizo matsumoto - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/kunizo-matsumoto/1a473fff11-1608547167/kunizo-matsumoto-portrait-400x.jpg)
![portrait of dan miller - © creative growth art center, christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/dan-miller/af25a2cfb4-1608547167/danmiller-portrait-1highres-400x.jpg)
![yukio miyashita - © atelier yamanami, christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/yukio-miyashita/c4e4221335-1608547167/yukio-miyashita-portrait-400x.jpg)
![portrait of oscar morales - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/oscar-morales/70e3c43c71-1608547167/morales-400x.png)
![Michel Nedjar - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/michel-nedjar/b2c34fb190-1700665052/capture-d-ecran-2023-11-22-155717-400x.png)
![Jean Perdrizet - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/jean-perdrizet/6118483540-1608547167/perdrizetjeune-x-400x.jpg)
![Royal Robertson - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/royal-robertson/175d7af349-1711130038/capture-d-ecran-2024-03-20-162800-400x.png)
![yuichi saito - © yamanami, christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/yuichi-saito/e83369ca6a-1608547167/saito-portrait-400x.jpg)
![patricia salen - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/patricia-salen/9d229047e2-1608547167/patricia-salen-400x.jpg)
![Milton Schwartz - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/milton-schwartz/093c538763-1608547167/sch4-001-400x.jpg)
![harald stoffers - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/harald-stoffers/7601f1b23e-1608547167/portrait-harald-stoffers-1-400x.jpg)
![ionel talpazan - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/ionel-talpazan/f92a85aebf-1608547167/talpazan-ny-400x.jpg)
![portrait of pascal tassini - © mario del curto, christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/pascal-tassini/66fd4f0575-1608547167/portrait-pascal-tassini-credits-mario-400x.jpg)
![august walla - © mario del curto, christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/august-walla/5a21776e05-1608547167/august-walla-c-mario-del-curto-400x.jpg)
![melvin way - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/artists/melvin-way/15bdbcc6e9-1608547167/portrait-melvin-way-400x.jpg)
![Catalogue published to mark the exhibition *Do the write thing #2 : read between the lines *, christian berst art brut, Paris, 2018. - © christian berst — art brut](https://christianberst.com/media/pages/content/publications/do-the-write-thing-read-between-the-lines-2/cebdd1118e-1608547167/do-the-write-thing-2-400x.jpg)
Preface : Eric Dussert
Foreword : Christian Berst
Catalog published to mark the exhibition Do the write thing : read between the lines #2, from April 26th to June 2nd, 2018.