Deb Sokolow’s elaborate diagrammatic drawings read like graphic novels. Often constructed with pen, pencil, watercolor, and correction fluid on paper, each drawing’s story features diagrams, floor plans, texts, and illustrations that chart an anonymous, paranoid narrator’s obsessive explorations of the circumstances and clandestine connections among various characters and places. For the Kemper Museum, Sokolow works directly on the gallery walls to construct a new storyline based on an amateur detective’s attempts to unravel a mystery involving barbecue sauce, food critics, condiment espionage, and Kansas City’s SubTropolis. Written in the second-person and following the narrative structure of a Choose Your Own Adventure—a popular series of children’s books—viewers assume the role of the central character and determine the fate of the inquisitive detective.
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Above, left: Deb Sokolow, preliminary artist’s rendering of You are one step closer to learning the truth (detail), 2007; graphite, ink on paper; Courtesy of the artist |
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