The Storyteller / Jeff Wall

“The figura of the storyteller is an archaism, a social type which has lost its function as a result of the technological transformations of literacy. It has been relegated to the margins of modernity, and survives there as a relic of the imagination, a nostalgic archetype, an anthropological specimen, apparently dead…such ruined figures embody essential elements of historical memory, the memory of values excluded by capitalist progress and seemingly forgotten by everyone. This memory recovers its potential…parallels the process in which marginalised and oppressed groups re-appropriate and re-learn their own history. This process…and its impact is transforming standard criteria of literacy, creating openings for a newer concept of modernist culture.”

“The Storyteller” in Jeff Wall The Storyteller (Frankfurt am Main: Museum fur Moderne Kunst., 1992)p. 7

Wall’s snapshot captures the essence of the marginality stemming from technological transformation integral within an ever changing cultural landscape. Re-education and re-appropriation in order to access lost literacy runs parallel to the idea of the multimodal structure. Exploration and utilisation of new forms and modes helps to promote maximum literacy and understanding.