JJJJJerome Ellis

Stuttering Can Create Time (2024 - ongoing)

billboard (dimensions variable)

created by People Who Stutter Create (Jia Bin, Delicia Daniels, JJJJJerome Ellis, Conor Foran, Kristel Kubart)

Commissioned for 2024 Whitney Biennial: Even Better than the Real Thing

Concept/Creative Lead: JJJJJerome Ellis
Design: Conor Foran
Text: Jia Bin, Delicia Daniels, JJJJJerome Ellis, Conor Foran, Kristel Kubart
Translations: Angelica Bernabe, Jia Bin, James Harrison Monaco, Argenis Ovalles, Wendy Palomeque
Typography consultant: Zoe (Yu) Cui
Typefaces: Dysfluent Mono by Conor Foran and Glow Sans TC by Celestial Phineas

This work is part of a series of public art installations organized by the Whitney in partnership with TF Cornerstone and High Line Art.

Listen to a mini podcast with the artists.

The second iteration of this project was presented as a lightbox installation in In a Manner of Speaking at The Blackwood (Mississauga, ON). 

Translations: Hussain Alhussainy, Bhavna Bakshi, Jia Bin, Michael Thunderbird

Translation pronunciation support: Jia Bin, Dr. Shafaat Rabbani, Khaled Abu Jayyab, Gloria B. (TripleTrad Canada)

Three lines of black text appear on a light seafoam green background:

La tartamudez nos ofrece tiempo

口吃者創創創創創創創創創創創造時間

Stuttering can create time.

The text is in a sans serif typeface organized in three straight lines within the top half of the composition. The bottom half of the composition is empty, emphasizing a sense of pauses, silences and expectations. The text is all lowercase and lacks punctuation, giving a casual and informal, almost text message-like feel. Each line of text represents a form of stuttered speech: blocks (pauses in speech), repetitions, and prolongations, respectively. The first line, in Spanish, translates literally to “Stuttering offers us time.” The space between “us” and “time” represents a block. The second line, in Chinese, translates literally to “People who stutter create time.” The first characters in the Chinese word for “create” are repeated. In the third line, in English, the “s” in “stuttering” is stretched horizontally to represent prolonged sound.