The Latin word circa means ‘around’ or ‘approximately.’ As the title of Pope.L’s work, the word refers to the often imprecise, fluid, and layered nature of language. This idea is most apparent in the various spellings of ‘fuchsia’ used for the subtitles of each of the 24 individual paintings that compose Circa. All the variant spellings of ‘fuchsia’ are paired with a word ending with the letter or sound ‘-a.’ The word pairings are imbued with meaning via both objective and subjective realities. Some words reflect current world events (‘Ebola’ or ‘Syria’). Some refer to the body (‘pleura,’ ‘plasma’) and the diseases it can contract (‘lymphoma’), while others refer to religion (‘Torah,’ ‘mullah,’ ‘nirvana’). The pairings demonstrate how meaning can change depending on circumstances and context. It is fitting, then, that the artist describes the paintings as ‘receptacles’ – their sack-like forms ready to be filled and re-filled with meaning.
