“Duck in the Muck” forms part of Kay Rosen’s Lists project, a format she has explored, separately from her painting and drawing practice, for over thirty years. The Lists organize language in serial ways, often through traditional print processes, but they have also taken the form of videos, book covers, two books, wall paintings, drawings, and bus tailgate posters. Now a leporello can be added to the list. “Duck in the Muck” was first conceived in 1989, but with the exception of an abbreviated window installation in 2013, it has not been realized in its full form until now, as if it had been waiting for this opportunity.
Although Rosen’s work always begins with a linguistic point, as language it intersects with content and subjects of grave concern, such as the environment. “Duck in the Muck” calls attention to the irresponsible behavior of the fossil fuel and chemical industries and its supporters as they cause havoc with nature. The distorted variations of “quack” reflect genetic damage to living species by oil and chemical spills, and as a worldwide disaster, the multiple spellings allude to the cries of voices from populations around the globe.
For The Leporello Series, LL’Editions has invited a select group of international artists to contribute. Each artist is given carte blanche, restricted only by the accordion format and its ten panels (recto). To date, participating artists include (in order of appearance) Heimo Zobernig, Micah Lexier, Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press, Ryan Gander, Shannon Ebner, Maurizio Nannucci, Karl Holmqvist, Jonathan Monk, Pieter Laurens Mol, Kay Rosen and Alejandro Cesarco.
Inhabiting a space between book and paper sculpture, the Leporellos are printed on delicate Mohawk Superfine Eggshell paper. Each volume in the series is limited to 250 numbered copies which come in a bespoke rigid box, with the title hot foiled both on its front and on its spine, allowing it to sit comfortably in a bookshelf when not on display.
Biography
Kay Rosen has spent her career exploring the visual potential of language. She was born and grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas (1943). The bi-lingual culture of south Texas and other languages spoken by some family members inspired her attraction to languages which she studied academically until 1968, when she shifted her attention to language-based art. Through paintings, drawings, murals, prints, collages, and videos, Rosen has sought to generate new meaning from everyday words and phrases by substituting scale, color, materials, composition, graphic design, and typography for the printed page.
Rosen’s work has been the subject of numerous articles, reviews, and group and solo exhibitions and projects worldwide, including a survey show of her work in 1998 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and Otis College of Art Design, and in 2023-2024 at the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art in Bremen, Germany. Rosen taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for twenty-four years. She lives and works in New York City and Gary, Indiana.
