Literature

In 2017-002, Balassanian foregrounds the calligraphic gesture as the primary structure of the painting. Repeated lines move across the pale ground in dense, overlapping formations, transforming handwriting into a field of abstract marks. Meaning resides less in the legibility of individual letters than in the movement, pressure and repetition of the hand, allowing language to hover between writing and image. Painted before the canvas was stretched, the work retains a particular immediacy: its unusual proportions and uninterrupted surface remain closely connected to the physical act of inscription.