Rosemarie Castoro Bank talk money, c.1968–69

Bank talk money belongs to the body of concrete poetry produced by Rosemarie Castoro between 1968 and 1969. Created in a period marked by the artist's move towards Conceptualism, the drawing evidences the importance of language within Castoro's multidisciplinary practice. Embracing the formal aesthetics of written text, and gesturing to her early training in graphic design, the poem acts as an informal diary or record of the minutiae of daily life. The words are colour-coded into three columns. On either side of the orange 'TALK' that runs through the core of the text, two groups of words are engaged in a process of associative play, in which those on the right seem to respond to those on the left. While many practitioners of concrete poetry privilege the graphic qualities of their chosen words over the meaning of the text itself, Castoro placed value in the tonal and interpretative elements of her poems, often reciting and recording her works once complete.

A solo exhibition of Rosemarie Castoro's paintings from the mid-1960s, organised by the Judd Foundation, is currently on view at 101 Spring Street in New York until 24 June 2023.