accent aigu – accent grave – accent circonflexe [three original works]

Carrión, Ulises

N.p. The Artist, N.d. [ca. 1979]. A series of three original works, each a 10.3 × 15.9 cm (4.0625 × 6.25 in.) leaf cut from Gustave Aimard’s ‘Les Nuits Mexicaines,’ with drawn on red ink, and each mounted on an A4 (8.27 × 11.69 in.) sheet of thin tan card stock. Text in French. Each work titled in pencil by the artist at lower-left margin, with two of the three initialed at lower-right margin.

Provenance: From the archive of the German artists’ periodical ‘Die Zweitschrift,’ to which the material was submitted in 1979 but never published.

A series of three original works exploring semiotics, imperialism, and sexual and cultural identity, intervening on three pages of Gustave Aimard’s novel ‘Les Nuits Mexicaines.’ As with much of Carrión’s practice, surface simplicity gives way to multiple levels of meaning. Accent marks held both semiotic and cultural significance for Carrión, whose own name included an accent often omitted in Western publications. Fellow Mexican artist, Felipe Ehrenberg, recalled Carrión “sending a typewritten letter with the accents added by hand. We were on the same wavelength.” Moreover, the source title is also a nod to Carrión’s Mexican identity, and a more subtle reference to imperial structures and the crossing of cultural and sexual borders. Several of Aimard’s novels include homosexual themes, and Aimard was also an enigmatic figure who fled his homeland, just as Carrión left his native Mexico for Europe. Finally, the emphasis on accent marks is emblematic of Carrión’s shift from being a novelist to exploring semiotics.

Artifact Vibration Score: 8.9.

Faint dried glue residue behind book page margins and age toning to card stock sheets. Else near fine.

Note: For buyers outside the U.S., payment for this item must be made via bank transfer. Item 1318.

Price: $5,000.00