A background in linguistics led Kay Rosen to explore language through her artwork.  Rosen animates words or phrases through typography and color, rearranging text to reveal surprising new meanings. For this work, Rosen created a grid of brightly colored paper which she repetitively inscribed with her written compositions in commercial sign paint. Each paper contains a hybrid of words, letters, and punctuation that calls into question the stability and standardization of language. For example, to some “buscar” brings to mind the Spanish verb meaning “to seek”, while others may break the word into the English nouns “bus” and “car.”

Rosen’s installation Never Odd Or Even (2005) is on display in the IMA’s Lichtenhauer Passageway Gallery.