From the judges: There were many great entries, but this one stood out to us. It was an interesting story, told in a difficult short-form way, and was very well executed.
Reading Between — and Along — the Lines
Category
Writing > Feature, Profile or News – Less than 1,000 words
Description
Bronze
Institution: The University of North Carolina General Alumni Association
Title of entry: Reading Between — and Along — the Lines
About this entry: Michael Klauke ’86 (BFA) is a visual artist. But his fascination — and his artistic expression — is with words.
Glance at Klauke’s In Good Faith, and it appears to be a line drawing of Botticelli’s Cestello Annunciation — depicting Gabriel’s revelation of the coming Christ child to Mary, who responded: Yes, may it be done.
But look closer.
Those lines actually are tiny words, and the words are ugly — taken from legal memos to President George W. Bush in 2002 on ways to justify torture. Yes, it may be done.
Klauke is fascinated by the contradictions that accompany a phrase such as "in good faith," the divergent ways that words are interpreted and manipulated. He employs a technique called textual pointillism — images made from thousands of words — for visual renderings of his musings on those contradictions.