WE BELIEVE some things are felt before they can be put into words.

in 4 letter word, Darcy Lundgren explores the unstable territory between aggression and affection - two powerful human impulses that can exist closer together than we might like to admit.

created as part of Lundgren’s shred series, featured in The New York Times, the works transform shredded paper into dense, tactile fields of colour, gesture and coded language. the material is fragmented and reassembled, mirroring the way emotion is often expressed: imperfectly, impulsively and without adequate words.

in “#*$!”, red and black collide with force. the symbols suggest a censored swear word - an eruption of anger, frustration and aggression that can be understood without ever being spoken.

its counterpart, “!&*?”, shifts into blue and pink. the same kind of abstracted punctuation becomes softer, more vulnerable and open to interpretation. here, the unspoken four-letter word is love.

placed together, the works ask how colour and context shape meaning. Is a word aggressive because of the letters it contains, or because of the emotion behind it? can tenderness carry its own violence? can anger conceal longing?

4 letter word leaves the language unresolved, allowing the viewer to fill in what cannot - or perhaps should not - be said.

mixed media - paper, acrylic paint

60" x 60" x 4"