Abécédaire: Alphabet

Nolan Oswald Dennis

Dividing language into small images in order to convert something heard into something seen is no simple task. An alphabet compiles graphic-sonic conjunctions to bind discrete drawings, called letters, to particular sounds (however inconsistent). The internal logics that govern the sequence of letters are just as, if not more important than, the graphic-sonic logic. A pre-grammatical hierarchy. The alphabet has rules that precede language; ABCDs are language-agnostic. French, English, Zulu all surrender to the order of the alphabet: A to Z. This alpha-beta . . . zeta index has a Greek history, which has a Phoenician history, which has an Egyptian history—but that’s another story.

The sound-to-letter relation is complex and treacherous. Letters propose a stable and recognizable pattern in the alphabetical order of our lives. A set of rules for constructing shapes and determining their sequence within the silence of a reading eye. Sound deposes this order, emerging from and merging with the polyrhythms of language, the traces of mother tongues, the ambiguity of your “A” which echoes with the power relations of pronunciation. Hearing, too, is filtered through knowledge and experience, theory and practice, yours or ours, modulated by the enforcement of recognition. Can you repeat that? The noisiness of our speaking mouths nurtures misrecognition. A cage and a shield in the LMNOPs of our lives.

Pronunciation is distinctly relational. To pronounce one’s self for one’s self. Legibility and elocution require a second, third, or fourth system. Domination. Sound reaffirms the sociogenic properties of language. The rules of sound are disciplined within the body; the ear must learn to hear and the mouth to enunciate. Consistently. Read. But speak well, or better, you speak so well. The violence of celebrating when we sound like you, who belong to the dominating world. The alphabet is accountable to this violence. It is better to know that the letters are also weapons, and like any weapon, that they can be turned against their masters.

Nolan Oswald Dennis is an artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Their practice explores the material and metaphysical conditions of decolonization, questioning histories of space and time through system-specific interventions. They hold a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and a Master’s degree in Art, Culture, and Technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Their work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam, Swiss Institute in New York, and Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town. They have been featured in group exhibitions at FRONT Triennial, Cleveland; Lagos Biennial, Liverpool Biennial; MACBA, Barcelona; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Seoul Mediacity Biennale; Shanghai Biennale; and Young Congo Biennale; among others. They are a member of the artist groups NTU and Index Literacy Program, a research associate with the VIAD Research Centre at the University of Johannesburg, and a member of the Edouard Glissant Art Fund Scientific Committee.