Caitlin Keogh

Ribands For a Wall, 2021

Caitlin Keogh is a painter. Her work is influenced by her background in technical illustration and an interest in art history and histories of decorative arts and utilitarian design. In her work she often explores decorative elements, such as tassels, ropes, embroidery, and vines, which she animates with ambiguous, symbolic motivations. The work Ribands For a Wall is no exception. On a wall, tucked away in Markedsgade, float colorful letters derived from a 16th Century ornamental alphabet against a white background, framed by blue sky. In the context of the mural, the soft colored letters play on signage and legibility, which is stymied as the letters float into and out of recognizable form. It is as much a depiction of floating ribbons as it is of elements of text. Keogh draws our attention to the capacity of visual style to express a voice, rather than to convey recognizable words. On this large exterior wall, often a space for advertising, the mural acts as a sort of exuberant decomposition of proclamatory language.

b. 1982 in Anchorage, Alaska, lives and works in New York.