In recent years Janice Kerbel has been interested in creating artwork based around language. Though her work is generally minimal and refined in its outcome, behind each piece is an extensive and complex body of research. Her Remarkable series is significant, as it typifies the artist’s thematic and stylistic approach to language. In the series, Kerbel takes nineteenth-century fairground posters as her inspiration and within each print tells the impossible story of a far-fetched and extraordinary performance act. The work was originally developed for Frieze Projects at Frieze Art Fair in 2007 as a reflection upon the spectacle of the fair. The typographic approach Kerbel takes when conveying her absurd Remarkable narratives creates an unusual linguistic emphasis. Although the prints are created digitally, each letter is treated as an object that is set individually onto the page (as in letterpress) rather than as part of a text document. This has the effect of altering the content’s focus and disguising the impossibility of the narrative. Through this technique the artist provokes an almost submissive acceptance of the artwork’s unfeasible content and stimulates the viewer to visualise the unlikely story.
In Double Attraction – Crystal and Blindspot, we are told the story of ‘the shyest person alive’ who has the ability to unveil ‘hidden truths’ and ‘distant futures’. Much like the nineteenth century fair posters, Kerbel uses traditional tools, such as visually amplified typography and hyperbolic language, to create a sense of awe and excitement. This has the added effect of allowing the viewer to become swept away in the momentary suspension of disbelief. In an ingenious act of obvious deception, through the use of everyday language tools, Kerbel has woven the illusion of reality into her surreal narrative.
