Signs & Symbols seeks to explore the collection of ephemera as nonlinear narrative structure. Detritus of an event rather than the description of one, it invites multiple readings and approaches.
The contents are entirely fabricated, adapted from the short story of same name by Vladimir Nabokov, first published in 1948 in The New Yorker and ten years later in Nabokov's Dozen. The individual elements range from highly potent documents to mundane circumstantial evidence: postcards from Eastern Europe, a box for dental powder, a gift tag, two bus transfers, a visitation form from a New York sanitarium, tea tags.
Echoing the structure of the original narrative, the unassuming superficial arrangement is the framework for a larger and more unknowable system that lies beneath. The title acts as an invitation both to interpret the signs and to question their relevance.
