Worship of Words
Plaster of Paris 
Sculptural Installation

A sculptural installation of small plaster skull sculptures the first showcase was titled 'VII DC' and was a part of Monica's Honours Art Exhibition for her BA Fine Arts degree.  The ongoing sculptural installation is an archival installation documenting 'the tempo' and life span of languages and how languages grow, change and die. It questions how large an aspect a language plays in life by documenting a selection of the 7600 languages spoken today. This in-process series reflects the diversity of languages and how each ages at a different tempo of time at different speeds depending on its origins, popularity and age. and how languages influence internal identity and culture.

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The installation was made as a part of Monica Blignaut's FIne Art Honours body of work which was the exploration of a bi-lingual, dyslexic
South African girl obsessed with language. A Morosoph, she is a ‘would-be philosopher’ searching to mystify and demystify language.
Through materiality and dada-isque stylistic techniques, language is evaluated, broken apart and redefined. She explores to make sense of the construct of language and what its binary is.

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Monica's relationship with languages is complex as a bilingual South African it is intrinsically connected to her identity. As a child, her language struggles and the difficulties surrounding them led to a passionate desire to understand them better. 

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The phenomenon that is language is a fascinating topic. In 2016 there was a lot of discourse over whether Afrikaans were removed from South African university syllabuses would it begin to suffer as a language and begin a descent to death of the language.

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An ongoing sculptural installation marking the 7600 languages spoken in the world. The deterioration and fragility of each skull speak of the life span language holds. This installation is both a celebration and a funeral rite for language. The act of filling the mould and then waiting for the plaster to dry became a ritual repeated over five hundred times. 

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Currently there are 555 languages represented and the imperfections of the plaster reflect the various states and decay of the different languages.