Michaux's scribblings

From "Narration" by Henri Michaux, 1927

"It looks like writing, but we can't quite read it. " (http://www.herenow.com.au/asemic.net/)

"Asemic" writing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asemic_writing) remains to be a category straddling the borders of writing, drawing, and the visual arts. In a way, that sums up Michaux's artistic trajectory. His famous ink drawings, whether or not we associate them to psychologistic arguments, can remind us of Rorschach ink blots, or of Chinese calligraphy, depending on your mood.

 In the image above, of course, what is amusing is the title of "Narration" given to obviously meaningless scribbles whose sole comfortable and recognizable element is the respect given to lineated spacing. Beyond this grade school level of conformity, the scrawlings resemble less any known language than the simple registration of some kind of unexplainable mechanical vibration. The whole enigma is no longer founded on the symbolic energies of scripts, but is now related as a process of inscription, like some kind of paint dribblings, or the seismic registration of natural events.

This is not to say that writing is now identical with nature. Despite the movement away from symbolization, and the push to bring inscription to the level of material forces, these scratchings, by the simple allusion to some kind of writing, still tempt us to look for something significant in them.

Even if we don't find any hint of real symbolic value, we still would want to give them some significance, even if they're now nothing more than the faint vibratory process traced over some kind of attempt to signify the attempt to signify.

From "Mouvements," Henri Michaux, c. 1950