Literature

In 3, Balassanian brings handwritten gesture into direct conversation with the material surface of the painting. Areas produced through inked cloth sit alongside fine lines made by hand, allowing transferred marks and inscription to accumulate across the pictorial field. Her use of writing does not depend upon legibility: letters and calligraphic gestures operate as visual forms, repeated and fragmented until distinctions between text, drawing and abstraction begin to dissolve. The work reflects a concern present in Balassanian’s practice since her early abstract paintings, in which flowing lines and inscription-like marks became a means of constructing images through movement, repetition and density.