PAST EXHIBIT OF TAPISSARY IN NEW YORK

April 28 - May 22, 2004

Opening reception: Thurs. May 6, 6pm - 9pm

Amos Eno Gallery

new location: 530 west 25th street , 6th floor

tel: (212) 226-5342

New York, New York 10001

PRESS RELEASE:

"For twenty-seven years I have been creating a language called Tapissary, which is inseparable from my art. Both deal with an exotic culture where unlikely mixes of material and ideas occur," explains Travis, who is mounting this exhibition of manuscripts in Tapissary, paintings, and ceramics. Over the years, Travis has developed a cyclic grammar and a visual vocabulary of thousands of hieroglyphs. The essence from sentences is lifted then spun into rotating cycles. This is an artist's handling of language. A glyph, being by nature a stylized drawing, is the 'sketch', while the grammar fleshes out each phrase by relating to an overall 'composition'. He paints his stories in much the same way, with an eye to opulent detail and complex structure.

The exhibit tells the story of an exiled scribe's return to his clay village, an imaginary civilization whose people speak Tapissary. A sixty-foot scroll and various manuscripts display the language's picture-rich calligraphy; graphic exhibits clarify the language itself; ceramic objects evidence the village's material culture; and a sixteen-foot long icon ornamented with hieroglyphic verses and porcelain medallions dominates the space.

Travis' mural paintings and ceramic sculpture were recently the subject of a one-person show at the Galerie Halle Saint Pierre, in Paris. He has explored aspects of Tapissary in shows in Los Angeles, New York, and Paris. This is the first time Travis is using his language as the main theme of an exhibit. TAPISSARY: Hieroglyphic Stories from a Clay Village blurs the distinction between language and art, reality and imagination.

TAPISSARY will be on display from April 28 to May 22, 2004 at the Amos Eno Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, 6th floor, New York, New York 10001. A reception will be held on Thursday, May 6, from 6:00 to 9:00 PM.

Gallery director contact: Laura Lopez (212) 226-5342

The Amos Eno Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 AM until 6 PM.

To view a diagram of the cyclic grammar, click on the image of the scroll above. To read more about this hieroglyphic language, click on the TAPISSARY button at the top of this page.

Depuis 26 ans, Travis développe sa langue hiéroglyphique qui s'appelle le Tapissary. Avec 8,000 charactères et une grammaire originale de cycles, cette langue inventée oriente les mots en images, et les images en mots -- un paradoxe où la langue communique un message, mais la langue elle-même reste un mystère pour les visiteurs. L'expo est composée d'un rouleau à 17 mètres de longueur, et des textes variés sur le sujet d'un pelerinage à un village imaginaire bâti de l'argile. La language et l'art; un voyage aux lieux de l'esprit; cette expo rend floue la distinction entre l'art et le discours.

Pour voir une page illustrée de la grammaire cyclique, veuillez cliquer sur l'image du rouleau en haut. Pour des explications de cette langue hiéroglyphique, cliquez sur le bouton TAPISSARY en haut de cette page.