Ebon Heath

Ebon Heath is a Berlin-based artist with roots in Brooklyn and Bali who has a quite well diversified portfolio. His experience ranges from designing for Triple 5 Soul and Bad Boy Entertainment in the 1990s (Biggie's "Life After Death") to jewelry design, sculpture and now Complex covers. He works for (((stereotyoes))).

“This visual journey began as a love affair with letters and a question: how do we fuse our typographic language with the physicality of our body language? I want our type to jump, scream, whisper and dance, versus lay flat, dead and dormant, to be used and discarded with no concern for its intricate beauty of form, function, and meaning. We use type daily yet rarely appreciate the form of a letter. By liberating type from the confines of the page we not only free the words to express the content in a new dimension of scale, volume, and movement, but also force the reader to become a viewer.” 

Ebon Heath intention is to make text into a bobile object and liberatwe it from the page. some of his pieces have been described as"crystalized words as frozen flowers". This is clear on a visual level, yet also the form of the flower has evolved to fulfill a specific function. All the letters and words fite together to create a structure and then all co-operating to create a living organism. The form of his type structures are also made to fulfill a specific goal to express the content of words, while made up of smaller ingredients of letters that collectively form our language. The prints do have a frozen quality, since the original works are mobiles that move and can be seen from multiple perspectives in a space. It also is ironic that when these structures are documented they are flattened into 2-dimensional planes, the very antithesis of Heaths initial goal. he wanted to capture all the audio and verbal noise, from music we plug our ears with to the din of countless conversations, screams and whispers. With new media of texting, online, and transmitted technology there is even invisible noise silent to the eye surrounding us all.

His work takes the form of mobile sculptures conceived as explorations in giving typography a physical presence away from the confines of the page. Using a set of basic geometric shapes within which to structure the forms the cut letters explode into dramatic structures that are choreographed with fine wire to illustrate the kinetic power of language set free.

Intricately cut by hand with the later work laser cut, the works possess a delicate quality that belies that heavy phrasing of advertising slogans and the power vested in the written word.His work takes the form of mobile sculptures conceived as explorations in giving typography a physical presence away from the confines of the page. Using a set of basic geometric shapes within which to structure the forms the cut letters explode into dramatic structures that are choreographed with fine wire to illustrate the kinetic power of language set free.

Intricately cut by hand with the later work laser cut, the works possess a delicate quality that contrast the bold phrases used in advertising.

This research has altered my opinion about his work as I know appreciate the delicacy of his letters and the way the explode outwards giving the everyday phrases a personality making the words come alive. I think this work is related to mu theme as i could show my memories through words and language.

I would give this work the title ‘word explosion’ as the words jump out at you. When you look at the work you constantly find new words and phrases to look at that before where hidden from view. I would like to compare this work to Stephen Walter that uses words in order to create a map of his journey. His work is very interesting as he writes letters that in certain shapes in order to construct a road map. The differences between the two works are that Walter’s creations are flat on apiece of paper, while Ebon Heath uses wire to hand his typography and make it expand outwards. The similarities between the two works are that they both play around with words to symbolise something that is ordinary in Walter’s case it is street maps and Heath it is advertisement slogans.

The elements that I think are successful are the way the letters create a natural forms that look like big beautiful exotic flowers. The elements that I think are not as successful are that he doesn't use colour and I prefer his work where he incorporated coloured lights to give the word more life.

 Another person said that they like his work and it is interesting to look at but she doesn’t like the fact that he doesn't write anything meaningful and just takes phrases from books and slogans.

I would like to use this idea in my final piece, but instead of using words that are not meaningful I will take words that form mu memories of the summer. I think my ideas connect to my research as I am count to create typography that comes to life and spirals around in a twisting circle. My peers really liked my response of the words tat represent my summer on a spiral and they said that it linked to Ebon Heath as the words come alive and it does represent a natural form. I think my response could be compered to a shell in a metaphorical sense. A shell is made out of lines that go around in a spiral to form the layers of the shell. this concept could connect to my memories of the summer as I went to the beach and collected sea shells which I put in my box. The shape of the spiral also represents my journey over the summer; meeting new people, visiting friends and family, going abroad.
The skills that I have developed is being able to cut out letters accurately, and using a scalpel knife in a safe way. the challenges i faced while making my tester what that paper is to thin and weak to be used for my final piece as it will rip and get ruined. My teachers suggested that for my final piece I use a soft plastic that is easy to cut with a scalpel but is a stronger material then paper. 

This is an example of Steven Walters work, i really like it as from a distance it looks like a real map but on closed examination you can tell it is made up of words from his journey.

I created my own version and in my map i wrote all of the places that I visited. I think it worked well as from a distance it also looks like a map, however next time I should try and use more colour.