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Illiteracy (2023)
Medium
Mixed media sculpture (desk and chair, altered book pages, permanent marker, collage)
Illiteracy confronts the quiet crisis of educational exclusion through a child-sized desk and chair, entirely covered in redacted text. Torn pages from printed books are layered across the surface, their lines struck out with heavy black marker, creating a visual language of silence and censorship. Amid the void, the words I CAN’T READ are collaged in cut-out letters—fragmented and raw.
This piece captures the emotional weight of being left behind in a system that equates literacy with worth. The blacked-out lines become a metaphor for both the experience of trying to decode language and the systemic failure to support those who struggle with reading. The child-scale furniture underscores the vulnerability and formative impact of these early moments of disconnection.
As part of Krystal Charlston’s Pedagogy series, Illiteracy interrogates how educational environments often prioritize performance over understanding. It asks: what knowledge is valued, and who is allowed access to it?
