Joel Swanson

Footnote Symbols, Extruded, 2011
paper / 27.5" × 39.5"

This project explores how marks and symbols operate semiotically by attempting to visualize and make physical their symbolic meaning. Footnotes connect divergent spaces while enacting specific relation- al hierarchies, such as the “mastertext” and the “subtext.” Within these paper cutouts, the absence of the symbol signifies the displacement of vision, meaning and power.