Datu Arellano

Parse This

parse.this

parse
verb: analyze a sentence into its parts and describe their syntactic roles.
noun (COMPUTING): an act of or the result obtained by parsing a string or a text.

The Parse This series of works builds on the notion that mistakes can be sources of inspiration, and have the potential to become vital elements of art objects and processes.

The series started when I attempted to re-learn calligraphy – an art activity I was doing when I was around the age of 10, but had forgotten during my teen years. Re-learning calligraphy was difficult and frustrating and lead to a lot of unattractive strokes, wasted ink and paper, and lost time. Or so I thought. Soon I observed that the mistakes generated by my rusty hand had a certain quality worthy of being developed into a personal style of writing-drawing. Parse This Document, Parse This Journal, and Parse This Tree Ring are examples of works I created in this style of writing-drawing. Anti-calligraphy is what I like to call it.

Since then, the Parse This series has expanded to include curious objects and collage works that make use of manga comic books as primary material. The Parse This Object sub series features whole modified books, front and back covers blacked-out, curled and bound tightly by cable ties, and typically arranged in arrays. Only slivers of each page -- a natural occurence when you curl these books -- are left exposed, as if the stories contained within are encoded. The books are bound as if to say, ACCESS DENIED.

The same books are used to create another set of artworks. The Parse This Picture sub series are collages made by shredding manga pages by hand using a small manual paper shredder. The resulting strips of paper are then jumbled and meticulously reassembled onto a surface to form an abstract, glitchy picture. A picture of what, we might never know. In the same vein as my anti-calligraphy, the act of creating a picture results in nothing but defects. Beautiful defects.

Through this series I have learned to accept and embrace imperfection, to find meaning in the mundane, to use mistakes as potent material, and to accept the chaos of the art making process and of life. I now know that, in the grand scheme of things, I honestly do not know much. •|•