Passwords

Expand

IIIFView PDF

Passwords

Artist Kay Rosen (American, born 1949)

Date1987

DimensionsH: 12 in. (30.5 cm); W: 16 in. (40.6 cm)

MediumEnamel on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of the Woodward Foundation, by exchange

Object number

2006.48

Not on View

Label TextKay Rosen explores the structure—both visual and auditory—of language in her art. She explains, “Language is used by artists for its message, as pop imagery, as texture, for its conceptual content, as surface design...for me, the language in my work is primarily about itself, about its structure. At least that's how it starts out.” Rosen grew up in the diverse community of Corpus Christi, Texas, where she developed an appreciation for different languages. She studied to become a linguist before embarking on a career as an artist. Her playful approach to language in her art manifests in word play, including rhymes, palindromes, and double entendres, that often reveals deeper meanings. “I don’t set out to send a message,” she says. “They emerge as a natural product of the structure, self-generated by the words or phrase.” Though painted in 1987, Passwords resonates strongly in today’s climate. Its play on words progresses from “El Paso”—Spanish for “passage” and the name of a Texas city on the border with Mexico—to a misspelling of “dos pasos” (“two steps” in Spanish), finally arriving provocatively at “trespassers” in a sharp-edged evocation of immigration tensions.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Word Play, October 16, 2009- February 7, 2010.