C - Deaf and Dumb Alphabet 1969 - 1970

Curator: This is Joe Tilson’s "C - Deaf and Dumb Alphabet," currently held in the Tate Collections. Editor: It’s strikingly stark. The composition, with its sparse imagery, feels almost like a diagram or a coded message. Curator: Absolutely. Tilson often explored communication and knowledge systems. Here, he uses sign language and a fingerprint. The combination points to issues of accessibility and unique identity. Editor: The fingerprint disrupts the clarity of the alphabet. It introduces the physical, the tangible mark of the individual, complicating the idea of standardized communication. Curator: And we have to consider Tilson's broader engagement with printmaking as a democratized art form, accessible to wider audiences through its reproducibility. Editor: It's left me thinking about how we all leave a unique mark, visible or not. Curator: Indeed, from the labour of its production to its conceptual concerns, this work opens up many considerations.