Artist Raque Ford discusses her recent exhibitions, "The Barkeeper’s Friend" at Greene Naftali and "Cry Baby" at Kunstverein Gartenhaus, highlighting her unique approach to language and materiality. Ford utilizes industrial materials like reflective acrylic, Mylar, and thermal printers to transform pop lyrics, overheard speech, and diaristic fragments into physical installations. Her work explores the tension between public performance and private interiority, often using scale to manipulate the viewer's emotional response to text.
Ford’s practice is significant for its intersection of sculpture, typography, and digital culture, particularly her exploration of the "chronically online" psychic state. By reclaiming pejorative terms like "crybaby" and utilizing the aesthetics of drag and pop refrains, she challenges traditional painterly languages. Her work reflects a broader contemporary interest in how social coding and personal identity are mediated through the noise of modern communication and material surfaces.