Shannon Ebner’s (b. 1971, Englewood) practice encompasses photography, video, sculpture and installation. Her works frequently explore the nature of writing and its meaning, with the work acting as a form of writing, and the writing, in turn, a way of seeing. Ebner’s art tests the boundary between image and text, seeing and reading. It often coaxes our attention towards the formal architecture or underlying ‘bone structures’ of words and typography, as well as the signs and symbols that populate everyday urban scenery. Her sculptures give concrete (if fragile and susceptible) form to letters or punctuation marks; while her photographic imagery and prints amalgamate legible units into seemingly illegible, even abstract, superstructures.
