This piece started with a marker pen. I wrote down, listed a number of words in English and then cut the page into several vertical strips.
I then rearranged the order, physically pasted the strips together with glue and scanned them into the computer to arrive at a new, invented language. This kind of script, that has no immediate, discernible meaning has been known since the 1990s as ’asemic writing’. And it is now practiced globally.
My script hovers over a vintage illustration of an abacus. With my love of the origin of words and the extra, extended meaning this can bring, the title chosen here comes from a Phoenician or Hebrew source ’ ābhāq ’ literally ’sand strewn on a surface for writing’ or ’a drawing board covered with dust’.