It has been said that a picture speaks a thousand words, but Adib Fricke of The Word Company, executive designer of intercultures‚ website, upholds that just the opposite is true, that is: a word can paint a thousand pictures. Where other artists create pieces from objets trouvés – remnants of life, so to speak, it is words found on the internet that serve as the starting point for the dissected word particles that Adib Fricke uses in his mural art.
Having worked initially in arts and in business communication with word-image combinations, he gradually allowed words to usurp the space occupied by images until words alone prevailed. Fricke launched The Word Company in 1994 as a progenitor of protonyms – words without meaning, or better said, words before they acquire a meaning. He created words randomly and put them up for sale. During the internet’s infancy, ensuring the uniqueness of a new word meant laborious and costly research; now the same process can be completed within a few seconds.
In a complex process that involves searching data bases for particular words – at present, he has set his sights on »space« and »Kunst« – he dissects the results into particles that form the raw materials for further work.
The results are blocks of text projected in non-linear manner onto large surfaces (walls), allowing the observer to wander between the lines and create new combinations and permutations. One cannot help but draw a parallel between the esthetics of his work and the calligraphic arts usually associated with the Near and Far East.
Adib Fricke’s exhibition »A Matter of Space« is at Galerie Realace, 138 Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin, Tel. +49 30-25 29 33 66, Wed to Sat 11 am to 6 pm, until the end of March, 2008.