1980
Bird of Prey
1981
sculpture
hammer, sickle, dollar bill
hight: 40 cm
o.T.
1983
wall sculpture with text
wooden trowel, pigment ink liner (red and black)
7 x 35,0 x 21,5 cm
Text:
THE EYE THAT SEES BUT CANNOT SEE ITSELF
THE EYE IS NOT THE ONLY GLASS THAT BURNS THE MIND
THE KNIFE THAT CUTS BUT CANNOT CUT ITSELF
THE MOIST TOOTH OF THE FLUID
Catch Phrases
1981-1984
drawing / wall object
series, 27 units
paper, pencil, pigment ink liner, steel rod
2 x 1 m each (approx/varying)
»In 1984, Fox showed a series of twenty-seven ›Catch Phrases,‹ each of which contains three superimposed languages. On the first layer, penciled letters on a gridded sheet of paper combine to make military euphemisms, read from left to right. Fox derived the text from the news media, primarily the American Network Forces Europe radio station he listened to while living in Berlin. Over the phrases, Fox drew large, political graffito that he had seen on buildings, pavements, fences, and roads throughout Italy. Fox solidified these symbols in welded steel rods to create a three-dimensional overlay as a third layer of language.«
excerpt: Flyer of exhibition "Terry Fox: Articulations (Labyrinth/Text Works)", Goldie Paley Gallery at Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, 1992
examples for military catch phrases:
soft target = Mensch
transfer of population = Zwangsdeportation, Vertreibung
low ingredients of reality = wenige Überlebende, Zivilisten, Kinder
downstream effect = die Folgen einer nuklearen Katastrophe
broken arrows = Verlust von Nuklearwaffen, die in die Hände des Feindes geraten sind
source: M. Loosen-Fox, 2016
Children’s Drawings
1985
drawing, with text
series, 32 sheets
pencil, pigment ink liner, ink on paper
50 x 50 cm each
location: Museum Folkwang, Essen
»Like ›Catch Phrases‹ and ›Textum Web,‹ this work consists of more than one layer of text and understanding. Individually, each page, read from left to right, is filled with newspaper headlines and military buzzwords such as ›acceptability of risk‹ and ›bureaucratic decision making process.‹ On top of these lines of text is Fox’s circular symbol, which contains all of the shapes of the letters of the alphabet, with one highlightened letter per page. In addition to these texts, the words in black type at the center of each page connect to form the ›headless man‹ ridddle used by Fox as early a 1982.«
excerpt: Flyer of exhibition "Terry Fox: Articulations (Labyrinth/Text Works)",
Goldie Paley Gallery at Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, 1992
Hobo Signs
1985
drawing
series, 52 sheets
25,3 x 17,7 cm
» (…) 52 Hobo Signs collected by Fox in the USA since 1975. Signs used by hobos to inform their subsequent peers of experiences made in some places, a direct imagery for a social (marginal) group. The sheets are underlaid with drawn targets, a suggestion of society’s perspective on this marginalized group.«
excerpt: Flyer of exhibition „Terry Fox. Elementary Parallelism,
Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen, 1997
The Rapture
1985
installation
temporary, with text and sound
elements: tape recorder, loudspeakers inside a Citroen 2CV, text (Jerry Falwell’s prerecorded, typically fanatical radio speach predicting the impending end of the world)
place: Ninth Paris Biennale, Sound Section, La Vilette, Paris, France
curator: René Block
Ricochet
1987
performance, with sound and text
with audience
elements: two piano wires stretched between two cars, car horns from four different countries and four car batteries, Morse code score in four languages, played with rosined fingers, empty sardine can and wooden stick
location: underground garage in Kassel/Germany
exhibition: documenta 8, Kassel, 1987
curator: Manfred Schneckenburger (artistic director), Elisabeth Jappe (section »Performance«)
»Ricochet took place in an underground parking garage in Kassel for Documenta 8. I connected piano wires to two facing cars. While I was sounding the rosined wires with y fingers, four assistants simultaneously played the following riddle text in Morse coe on four battery-powered car horns:
A headless man had a letter to write
it was read by one who lost his Sight
the Dumb repeated it word for word
and hew as Deaf who listened and heard
Guided by four Morse Code scores, each horn was played in the language corresponding to the country in which it was manufactured (France, Italy, England, Germany). The sound was fairly deafening, driving many people away after a few minutes. The police came three times an finally stopped the event.«
(Terry Fox, works with sound, 1999, p. 85)