Bonito-Rapoport Shoes 1979

Sonya Rapoport made "Bonito-Rapoport Shoes," and you can see how she builds up layers of marks, almost like coding information onto the page. The colors are muted, with reds and browns, giving a sense of something ancient being re-discovered. The surface is a continuous computer paper printout with sprocket holes down either side, and each glyph, word and image has been applied with a different kind of pen or marker. This piece feels like archeology, but in a digital landscape. Look at how Rapoport renders the Pueblo Bonito pottery shards. They are presented as though they are data points in an information system, with the forms and patterns made distinct through their redrawn iterations. They become a kind of symbolic language, a way of preserving cultural memory. Rapoport was a pioneer in her approach to image making, playing with process and mixing together both the ancient and the contemporary. Think of Agnes Martin, the way her work encodes personal vision through the grid. Ultimately, "Bonito-Rapoport Shoes" invites us to consider art as a conversation, a weaving together of different voices and histories. It's not about having all the answers, but about embracing the questions.