Local artist exhibits sculptures at Library at the Dock

Docklands artist and graphic designer Jo Ryan’s exhibition Lett4ms will appear in the library’s window display from October 29.

“I’m a graphic designer by trade, so language is surrounding me all the time,” Jo told Docklands News.

Communication, signs and language have sat at the core of Jo’s artistic practice since 2003, when she was working as a graphic designer and found herself increasingly noticing the mosaic of language and signs that surround us throughout our daily lives.

“I was walking into the city, into my office, and I noticed that I kept looking at all of the signage, and the changing signage. And then I realised how much signage is surrounding us,” Jo said.

“Most of us don’t see it because we’re looking for the shop that we’re looking for, or we’re taken by a window display. But because I’m a graphic designer, I look at all of it.”

“And so ever since 2003, that’s what I’ve been trying to do. Just bring out all the language that surrounds us.”

The concept for Lett4ms originated with a work titled An amalgam of circles and cypher.

When Jo and her husband moved to Docklands in 2022, she noticed the artworks on display in the Library at the Dock’s window and immediately envisioned An amalgam of circles and cypher on display there.

From there, Jo drew together the full window display which now includes 12 sculptures.

One of the pieces that will be on display is Jo’s most recent sculpture, Word.

The work uses repurposed acrylic church sign letters which each have the word “word” written on them in more than 60 different languages including written interpretations of Auslan signs and braille.

The acrylic letters are arranged in such a way that, when viewed as a whole, they form one of the Chinese characters for “word”.

Lett4ms also features the works All about me, which was a finalist in Deakin University’s 2021 Small Sculpture Award, and Untitled, which was a finalist in the 2024 Toorak Village Sculpture Exhibition.

Jo is also exhibiting her work at SOL Gallery in Fitzroy this December; the exhibition will revolve around her own reimagining of a painting titled The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife by Australian painter David Laity, which is itself a reinterpretation of an early 19th century woodblock print by influential Japanese painter Hokusai.

Lett4ms will be on display in the window at Library at the Dock from October 29 to November 23. •