Studios > Ben Pranger
Ben Pranger
All my sculpture and drawings are embedded with language. Codes, such as Braille or Morse, take possession of an object to create an opaque, tactile art containing hidden messages. Braille pegs and alternating colors communicate a verbal content accessible to a few (the blind and telegraph operators) but the code influences and structures the form as a whole.
During the residency, I will develop three projects: interactive Braille block installations, sculpture embedded with coded language, and a series of large-scale conditional text drawings. For the interactive piece, I will make a set of custom-designed Braille blocks and invite blind and sighted participants to make a large rhizomatic constructions that looks something like a cross between a Scrabble, Tinkertoys and Braille. I will continue to embed language and information in objects, and will experiment with other materials in combination with found wood. I will also be working on a series of large Morse code drawings that respond to a text according to a series of instructions.
