The streets of Ferdinand Saussure

Statement

Underneath our city arteries, the roadways, corridors and paths conceal a labyrinthine network of utilities and services. These invisible networks facilitate the complex delivery of services and communications essential to the smooth operation of a functioning, modern society.

In a continual process of breakdown and repair, road maintenance workers spray-paint symbols (numbers, dots, lines, crosses and arrows), modern day hieroglyphics denoting repairs and modifications required. These indicate interventions where future work needs to take place.

This palimpsest of gestures and marks (the signs and the signifiers that the French semiological and linguistic philosopher, Ferdinand de Saussure [1857 – 1913]) speak of time, incidents, accidents, obstructions, engagement and performance. They represent blemishes and glitches, metaphors for the breakdown of our systems under pandemic lockdown and other interrupters.

They appear without reference or context, a secret language communicated in the public domain, but hermetically sealed outside the inner sanctum. The signs exist long after the repair works have been completed, muted evidence of some previous activity and purpose.