Lot Essay
Created in 1991 the same year that the artist began his now iconic letter-form works, Feelings demonstrates Pierson's minimalist approach to text as art through assemblages of found outdoor signage. Much like Carl Andre's typewriter drawings, Pierson finds a simple beauty in the use of a single word. However, unlike Andre who repeats a word continuously, Pierson emblazons a word or words largely on a wall which elicits from the viewer a distinct association. '[He] approaches his work in various media from the perspective of a photographer or filmmaker capturing the life of his alter ego.... Viewed together, his photographs, word sculptures, paintings and drawings are the poetic redemption of his past. Each tells a story of love, desire, loss, hope, or loneliness' (B. Clearwater, exh. cat., Jack Pierson: Regrets, Miami 2002). Feelings is a meta-example of Pierson's mission as the very definition of all that he wishes to express.