Signature Painting
Le Signal Score: L’Ouverture
The Signal Score: Overture
Xin Hao Yue Pu: Qian Zou Qu
信号乐谱： 前奏曲
La Chanson des Signaux de La Vie
The Signal Song of Life
Ren Sheng Xin Hao Ge
人生信号个
Artist’s Statement
I produced this series of paintings in Princeton, NJ, during the Winter of 2008 – 2009. Its title derives from a hypnotic memory. The series grew out of the painting, Signals (originally entitled, The Signal Score), completed in December, 2008 as a logo design assignment for a scientific research institute: an emerald green envelope body with a red signal STOP light, topped by a red flap with a green signal GO light — my paean to the “stop” and “go” digital mechanisms of gene expression.
The series contains 21 paintings, but there are actually only 20 titles (one, Miracle d’Amour, is “transcribed” in two ways). Therefore, the word “Score,” a synonym for 20, gives a nod to the 20 amino acids, which are the building blocks of life. The word “Score” contains an additional biological allusion: genes are in some (not yet fully understood) way “marked” for their destiny. “Score” also refers to the musical notation, or transcription to a set of written symbols, of the song — for to me, LIFE is a Signal Song, a directed and remarkable composition. As genes are turned off and on in the course of development, i.e., expressed, proteins are made, and life, in turn, progresses through time.
I should note here, that the Mandarin characters for “signal” are “message” and “through time.” Is time linear, circular, or both? I couldn’t say. It is for each viewer to decide.
After La Chanson des Signaux de La Vie was completed in February, 2009, I felt it needed an “overture” painting, to which I transferred the title, The Signal Score. The original painting which inspired the series, I then renamed, simply, Signals.
I am incalculably grateful to the late G R Bishop, Jr., emeritus Professor of French and former Dean of Instruction, Rutgers College, and Xiu-feng Kanagawa, my Mandarin tutor, for their invaluable assistance in translating the painting titles to French and Mandarin, respectively. Their attention to nuance is most particularly acknowledged.
— B. F. Graham
Summer, 2009
