RT4A

rt4a began with a transcription accident. In 2014 I dictated “Arty Fouray”, a nickname modelled on “Andy Warhol”, to my phone. It returned RT4A.

The four-letter/six-letter shape of Andy Warhol’s name supplied the pattern for the nickname. The phone’s transcription turned it into letters and a number. An identity emerged between something I chose and something I did not.

A code takes the place of a name. RT4A still attributes a work, but offers fewer clues about the person behind it. The signature makes recognition possible without making resemblance compulsory.

The code can act as an avatar. Its apparent impersonality is a construction too. RT4A lets paintings, objects and recordings share a signature while each follows its own logic. A name can become a style before a work is even seen; the code gives me another place to begin.

Other artists can use RT4A too. I want the name to remain available beyond the limits of one person’s work—and one person’s lifetime.