Language Is Not Transparent 1969

Mel Bochner made this piece, called 'Language Is Not Transparent', with transfer type on paper. The process starts clean and clear, but then things get blurry, right? It's like the phrase itself is put through the wringer. The surface goes from pristine to almost smudged, like a worn-out printing press. Look at the bottom right square, where the words are all piled up – it's a visual mess. That one part captures the whole idea, how language can get so tangled. Bochner's playing with repetition and how things change when you say them over and over. It reminds me a bit of Jasper Johns and his word paintings, but Bochner's rawer, maybe more cynical. It makes you think about how we communicate, how clear we think we are, and how things often end up a bit lost in translation.