Van Ogtrop, Akky. Private Language, Public imagery, CoFA exhibition space and Ivan Dougherty Gallery, 2004, ill. (catalogue)

When Nathalie asked me to write a foreword for her exhibition catalogue, I realised yet again, that for me, even after so many years, to write in English is still translating my thoughts for Dutch into English. It is not for nothing (translated directly from Dutch “Het is niet voor niets”) that we are talking about “our mother tongue”.

There are approximately 6000 languages on earth today, the descendants of the language first spoken by homo sapiens some 150,000 years ago. How did they all develop? What happened to the first language? Reading Nathalie Hartog-Gautier’s Master of Arts research paper “Private language, Public imagery, will not answer that question, but certainly gives an insight in Nathalie’s fascination with the association between art and language as a means of communication.

She wrote: “We can only write with the tools and knowledge we have acquired until now. Do images demystify words? In some respects they provide much more information and emotion that can be provided by writing, e.g. “an image speaks a thousand words”. She explores the idea of “sensorial experience” and communication through sound.

Theses thoughts remind me of the sound poems of the Dadaists and their use of typography in manifestoes and posters. Dada’s influence on the visual arts generally resulted from the use of images of printed language rather then pictorial images. German artist Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) combined languages, forming a kind of language collage. From time to time Schwitters even addressed a small audience in “bird language” sitting in the top of a tree.

Speech predominates in general and shapes the greater part of inner life in accordance with its laws, it therefore is easy to imagine that a people who could visually symbolize their world could also speak a complex language. New clues to the past continually emerge as we compare the world’s languages and trace their relationships back to time. “Language is the mirror of our humanity, and only by studying its many reflections will we ever fully know ourselves.” (Peter Thomas) In her images, Nathalie Hartog-Gautier plays with moving signs, rhythm, she “writes” on paper, and uses paper in a traditional method to record information, her images like one long letter, a script. Frottage collecting evidence through the rubbings of existing natural and man made languages.

To take on a Master of Arts degree by research and exhibition is not the final gesture but part of a discovery tour towards new ideas and innovative work. Looking at the silently suggestive images, it’s only natural to want to know more about Nathalie as an artist and her written message.

Akky van Ogtrop Executive Director, Sydney Art on Paper Fair