John Massey’s Black on White series consists of a suite of ten large-scale digital prints completed between 2012 and 2016. Massey’s 40-year practice has long privileged collage technique, from early print works that layered distinct sets of symbols and images into one field, to digitally integrated mise-en-scènes where unlikely objects are introduced into architectural interiors and landscapes. Black on White combines physical collage and digital graphic processing, each work conveying a dense, layered turbulence. Base layer images are glimpsed through a buildup of black figures—letterforms, punctuation marks—meticulously applied to rhetorically animate the latent energy of a personal, ontological index of signs, gestures, and declared imperatives.
Softcover, stitch-bound, b&w.
2016