This poster project is derived from a series of text-based drawings, called All-Encompassing, which uses phrases and diagrams that attempt to describe the ineffable magnitude of the cosmos. Inscribed tablets serve as visual reference for these delicate graphite drawings. A recessed shadow makes carved inscription visible, but here, a poster made at the same scale as the original drawing uses reflective metallic ink to illuminate the text on an opaque matte background. From a distance, the text appears as a series of indecipherable vertical marks, perhaps a mystical code. Upon closer inspection, the text is revealed as legible, while the illusive nature of language remains. The interplay of light and shadow visualize revelation and concealment.

Christina Ondrus is an artist whose work participates in the experience of mystery and the search for knowledge, wandering a liminal space where science, philosophy, and mysticism grasp toward understanding perception, phenomena, and one’s place in the universe. She received her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She was a 2010 artist fellow with the Terra Foundation for American Art. She recently published an artist’s book, An Invisible Way: A Synchronous Journey, tracing her travels to a Neolithic archeoastronomy site in France. Christina is also the founding director of KNOWLEDGES, which organized a site-specific exhibition featuring more than thirty artists at the Mount Wilson Observatory in 2012. www.christinaondrus.com.

To get the poster, purchase X-TRA Volume 17, no. 2 here: https://secure.x-traonline.org/store/product/301