TONE is a screen-printed art publication dedicated to text art, what we call a lowercase journal. It is edited by James Merrigan, Laura Fitzgerald & Alan Phelan. TONE is the first of three issues to be launched at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios on July 8th at 6pm, followed by issues 2 & 3 launched at The Royal Hibernian Academy & the Douglas Hyde Gallery in the Autumn & Winter of 2022. It is screen-printed by Small Night Projects, in a garage, in Waterford City. At 40x34cm it’s close to A3 in size with a page count of 53.

Text is prevalent in our visual economy, especially in the proliferation of memes on social media. However the three co-editors of TONE, two of whom are contributing artists Laura Fitzgerald & Alan Phelan, have invited contributions wherein text stands alone without the crutch of the image. This is what editor James Merrigan calls TEXT AS IMAGE. 

In what contributing L.A. artist Mark Verabioff called “the first wave”, we have researched far & wide for artists who prioritise text in their art as a standalone thing, divorced from the visual, but intimating an imaginary space that brings images & emotions to bear on the reading of them. Our hope is the reader will experience the chiastic structure of text as experience & experience as text. 

The texts come in a variety of forms, from typed to handwritten, repetitive to rhetorical. What brings all six contributors together is what is intrinsic to words detached from their grammatical system: vulnerability. In this vulnerable & disjointed lexical space, artists tease out images & emotions through the silent saying of things without a pictorial representation to bridge the gap or rupture. Things said can never be unsaid. Is this the artist saying the words, society, or a verbal echo of you, the reader? 

We invite you to come find out more on July 8th, 6pm, at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios Dublin, where a launch & introductory discussion to the project will take place with the co-editors. We will discuss the project in light of its local context & the international artists who have generously acknowledged our conceptual & critical aims by accepting our invitation. The TONE artists are: Laura Fitzgerald, Alan Phelan, Jack Pierson, Laure Prouvost, Mark Verabioff, Isobel Wohl.

The first issue TONE will be for sale at the launch night. It will NOT be available online as a pdf, or by post, but will be distributed only in-person. 50 copies will be available on the launch night at €20 each, strictly one copy per person. Cash only. 

Funded by The Arts Council of Ireland and Dublin City Council

-Small Night Projects
11/11/2023