The Writing’s on the Wall

Language and Silence in the Visual Arts

I wanted to find work that really balanced. And there are other pieces that are bridges to language — I’m thinking of the Steve Wolfe/Christian Marclay collaboration [ “La Voix Humaine,” 1991] of a stereo. Language is on the record in the form of writing on the label, and the silence of the record, which isn’t playing, is a bridge to Ellen Gallagher’s very text-heavy grid of prints [ “DeLuxe”].

The real challenge, and the joy, was to find connections and bridges. Once you have the kind of — what would they say in a movie? A master shot — you have to find the details that connect the smaller scenes to the bigger scenes. And I felt that I wanted to be very careful that the connections didn’t overwhelm the bigger pictures, but helped the bigger pictures to be there.

For artist Jordan Casteel and fashion designer Batsheva Hay, it was love at first sight. While their husbands, both photographers, had been close for years, the two women struck up a friendship of their own during the early days of the pandemic, when the Denver-born, New York–based painter was hunting for her wedding dress. “I knew I didn’t want to wear a white dress. I wanted to wear something fun, playful, and representative of me,” says Casteel. After the artist’s now husband, David Schulze, recommended Hay, known for her flouncy, printed frocks, the designer wound up making Casteel two wedding dresses: one of blue and yellow wax-print fabric and the other of red moiré.