Dirk Krecker I’m Not a Pirate–I’m a Fisherman 2011
© Dirk Krecker
Dirk Krecker is representative of a new generation of typewriter artists who must at some level grapple, in a way that earlier practitioners did not, with the instrument’s tenuous status vis-à-vis the rise of digital technology. Krecker negotiates this issue in part through his choices of subject matter. The commercial airplanes that appear throughout his recent typings suggest the constant itinerancy of contemporary life. Other works depict fighter jets, resonating with the militarism of the post-9/11 era; in one composition, a fighter jet appears locked in crosshairs, evoking the televised experience of warfare to which the 21st-century world citizen has become accustomed. Krecker’s recent production also includes scenes of birds taking flight. In juxtaposition with the rest, these images attenuate a sense of movement and speed that belies Krecker’s slow, methodical process, akin to that of a weaver working on a loom. Krecker achieves atmospheric effects suggestive of dusk or fog. As they did for the Impressionists more than a century ago, these effects temporalize the static image, amplifying the sensation of the here and now and scrambling further the typewriter’s associations with the obsolescence.
Identification
Title
I’m Not a Pirate–I’m a Fisherman
Production Date
2011
Object Number
2016.522
Credit Line
Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, acquired from The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Copyright
© Dirk Krecker
https://www.pamm.org/en/artwork/2016.522
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Physical Qualities
Medium
Typewriter ink on paper
Dimensions
20 1/2 x 14 1/4 inches
Visual Description
I’m Not a Pirate–I’m a Fisherman by Dirk Krecker is text-based art work from 2011. It is made of typewriter ink on paper and measures roughly twenty inches by fourteen inches. It is hung in portrait orientation, meaning its shortest side runs parallel to the floor.The piece depicts two planes made of letters on a typewriter.The large silhouettes of the planes glide diagonally toward the left-hand side of the composition surrounded by streaks of red inkThe composition is in tones of gray black and lighter gray spaces. This black and gray composition is on aged paper that is slightly off white with a gray tint. This entire work is typed text on paper with the red and black colors intertwined into the type. The herringbone pattern has distinct horizontal void spaces scattered throughout. The two planes take up much of the composition and they face downward with the two tails to the right and the noses to the left of the page. The angle of the plane is roughly 45 degrees for the first plane. The second plane is facing toward the bottom of the composition at an almost 90-degree angle. There are dark streaks coming horizontally from the plane at various spots along the body and wings of the airplane. There are both red and pink horizontal streaks every few inches starting on the right-hand side at the top. The red and pink streaks reach the middle of the page about a third of the way down the page and run through the body of the planes. This piece is bordered by approximately an inch margin serving as a frame around the subjects.
