On Art

#24 Freud’s Last Words: Dreams Follow the Mouth, by Dana Kadison and Earl Kallemeyn

Mexican bingo cards, or lotería, are an unlikely starting point for Talmudic exploration. But artist Dana Kadison and letterpress printer Earl Kallemeyn use the form to create art works that explore texts, including religious texts. They work with letterpress type, digitally create images, and hand-­­letter other text. Kallemyen prints the works on old machinery. In Freud’s Last Words, the handwritten quote is from a section of the Babylonian Talmud in which the rabbis addressed dreams. The text fence around the quote includes commentary and other readings. The open space, says Kallemeyn, honors what is left unwritten, which “may be as potent as what is written.”