Crossing out as a form of aesthetic commitment. An analysis based on the works of José Miguel Ullán, Concha Jerez and Fernando Millán.

Abstract

Crossing out is a formal technique used in Spanish experimental poetry and conceptual art. This article examines three works that apply this technique to pre-existing texts. The cryptic nature of these works—due to the sparseness or absence of lexical units—along with their formal autonomy and decontextualization, invites a meta-referential reading. In this view, crossing out serves to intensify the graphic materiality of the sign. However, focusing on the nature of the pre-existing texts challenges any formalist reading. These texts suggest a political interpretation, especially when considering the Franco regime's practice of crossing out both voluntarily submitted texts to the Ministerio de Información y Turismo and to the graffiti that covered city walls. This article argues that the impersonal procedure of appropriation and crossing out represents an alternative form of aesthetic commitment in the works of José Miguel Ullán, Concha Jerez, and Fernando Millán, and explores the various meanings that arise from the act of erasing meaning.