Commissioned by Kunstinstituut Melly, NL
Suppose for a moment the claims about pain’s ineffability are historically specific and ideological, that pain is widely declared inarticulate for the reason that we are not supposed to share a language for how we really feel.
Anne Boyer: The Undying
[a pale wooden structure holds four A4 publications, side by side on a white wall. Each publication has a white cover with black text on the bottom right and top left. The text is too small to read.]a pledge: download
Book I/IV: Lexicon (subgroups): PDF download
Book II/IV: Lexicon (ẍây ithřa to English): PDF download
Book III/IV: Lexicon (English to ẍây ithřa): PDF download
Book IV/IV: Grammar + Bibliography: PDF download
For 84 STEPS at Kunstinstituut Melly, the artist presents a newly commissioned work, furthering their interest in the generative potential of access with the creation of a new language: ẍây ithřa, initiated in response to the ableism and restrictive nature of the English language. Formulated over a period of months in close collaboration with linguist Margaret Ransdell Green, ẍây ithřa exists as a 300+ word lexicon, complete with morphosyntax, phonology, and an ever-growing set of idioms. Drawing on rich histories of queering lexicon, from argots and cants, to anti-languages and the use of constructed language within Sci-Fi and speculative fiction, Walden seeks to bring fluidity, ease, and ‘access intimacy’ to those in sick, disabled, and trans bodies. The artist uses world-building, not as a visionary tool for an imagined future, but as an embodied methodology for the now.
The set of four publications can be purchased by emailing emailrawalden(@)gmail.com
Limited run of 111 copies.