What is BIG WORDS?

BIG WORDS is an international study and exhibition of Indigenous languages. The project asks Indigenous and non-Indigenous people/designers to explore evolving graphic languages used to communicate new, sometimes competing and contradictory, values or contemporary social concerns. The graphic languages also contribute to the formation of national cultural identities.

BIG WORDS will promote exchange and collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists/designers/practitioners. In communities throughout the world, these collaborations will result in a series of pictures or illustrations, each one depicting a single word, concept or expression. For example, how to depict the word ‘touch’ or ‘peace’? What do these depictions reveal of people and culture? How are these same words depicted by communities around the world? Indeed, is this possible?

This is a collaborative, international program that looks at the way graphic languages can be or are used as vehicles for the expression of a culture’s intangible heritage.

The exhibition will be supported by a catalogue that chronicles the project and its outcomes. The catalogue will be Volume One of a comprehensive series of catalogues over the lifespan of the project. Education and interactive programs will also form an integral part of the exhibition program.

Together with the intended touring exhibition, the research will be shared and circulated through the international cultural, Indigenous, and education networks of the project partners.

The exhibition will be launched in Paris in 2009 before its ‘Nomad’ tour. BIG WORDS is a project initiated by the National Design Centre.