SIGNS OF AN ALPHABET

Excerpt from Margaret Hooks essay for HERBARIUM book, 2006
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Concurrently with “Elements” he began work on a piece that addresses an equally essential aspect of our existence. The alphabet is the basis of the word, of language, of what makes us human, it is symbol, sign and signifier. Armengol’s “Alphabet Signs” arose from his conviction that in our globalized world the current social, ethical system is breaking down and must give way to a new set of values and human interaction. This breakdown, he believes, indicates that humanity’s survival is in jeopardy unless new parameters for a peaceful, harmonious coexistence are devised.

To achieve this, he is convinced we have to go back to zero and invent a different language of communication based on a new “alphabet” -- a system of signs that could express more fully, more philosophically what all mankind has in common.

“This piece brings together several of my interests, sculpture, photography and symbolism. It consists of 22 photographs, the number of cards in the Tarot, which is inspired by the Hebrew alphabet, and uses images, numbers and symbols to indicate values, attitudes and situations of the individual in the world.”

According to Armengol the black background he utilizes in all of the alphabet images refers to the genesis of time, to the darkness before light. They speak to us of the allegory of space and time, about the mystery of life and our underlying quest for its essential values. Their lines, enigmatic strokes from some arcane pen, black empty spaces that trap a tiny gesture, hint at directions that could be taken. The work can also be viewed as a kind of game -- one’s own values can be linked to the representations, in the form of a symbolic language, as though they were fundamental in establishing the graphic expression of what would then become an “alphabet”.

The piece is actually comprised of 21+1 photos-signs; the extra one being the “Zero” which is usually exhibited more prominently than the others, as it should be, for the zero has powerful connotations and here against a void-black backdrop it speaks volumes. However, Armengol’s pared down “Zero” is slightly wobbly, somewhat frail and frayed at the edges. In fact, it looks like it might well have stood up from a page in one of Samuel Beckett’s plays and would not look altogether out of place rolling along that country road in “Waiting for Godot”.

The reference to Beckett is relevant for there are elements in much of Armengol’s work that echo Beckett in his paring away of the superfluous from his lexicon of images to expose only the essential. His work is deceptively simple, devoid of artifice and the materials he utilizes extremely sparse.
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