MARK C. STEVENSON

Call Me Ishmael asks where subject and meaning originate.

​The work establishes and then destabilizes the conditions through which meaning is formed, revealing how assumptions take hold and shape how we interpret and act in our daily lives.

The title invokes Melville’s opening line: “Call me Ishmael.” It is an instruction that establishes conditions, not a statement of fact, yet one that readers typically accept without question. In the same way, the series examines the reliability of perception and the contingent nature of interpretation by appearing to offer a truth, then leaving the viewer to determine what that truth might be.