They represent a "virtually unexplored visual vernacular, a world of makeshift means and primitive methods, of gestural madness and unruly visions, of piety and poetry and a million private plagiarisms".
The eighties might also be the last era associated with an exuberant visual vernacular.
It's not surprising that artists and designers would pick up on this visual vernacular as a new expressive medium.
And it is true that a lot of female selfie aficionados take their visual vernacular directly from pornography (unwittingly or otherwise): the pouting mouth, the pressed-together cleavage, the rumpled bedclothes in the background hinting at opportunity.
And yet, the two artists found themselves exhibiting together in 2011 at the Venice Biennale, the most insider of art world affairs, discussing their relationship to Lockett's work, an artist they both understood as speaking in their visual vernacular. .
Creating a tale of multigenerational appeal usually entails combining the exaggerated, less subtle visual vernacular of youngsters with writing laden with meaning for their parents.
Benenson will also speak on a closing panel Saturday afternoon, titled "I Have No Words: Emoji and the New Visual Vernacular".
Maybe that's why the visual vernacular of images, emoji, those cartoons text characters, and GIFs are all so popular.
On YouTube – where the visual vernacular was defined by trailblazers less than half his age – Moyles is out of his comfort zone.
There's no way to manufacture genius; but with the rise of generations for whom computer graphics are both part of the visual vernacular and increasingly accessible for personal tinkering, I'd bet on such artists emerging again.
