“Like Ingrid Calame, whose drawing is seen nearby, Michael Genovese uses marks made by others as starting points for his work. He allows other people to mark his black enameled “scribing boards” sometimes by making them the focus of group activities or by leaving them in public spaces where people inscribe them with graffiti. He then transcribes- in two or three different languages- all the words on the scribing boards, engraving them into highly polished metal “tablets.” Though translation implies accessibility, Genovese purposely records the words in such minute letters that they are unreadable. His tablets thus become paradoxical Rosetta Stones, containing information in several languages yet accessible to no one.”
These particular scribing boards were made by a group of students in MAM’s Brick by Brick after-school program. -Peter Boswell, Chief Curator, Miami Art Museum