Art Show and Events: Press & Release 2016 ** 30 Apr – 12 Jun 2016 ** Phoenix Brighton
Geraldine Ondrizek
Press & Release 2016: Technology and the Evolution of the
Artist’s Book.
Building upon Phoenix Brighton’s reputation for presenting unique and highly acclaimed exhibitions of artists’ books, we present an ambitious new project that brings together one of the world’s foremost artist books curators and a Brighton-based design team.
The exhibition features the work of notable book artists from across the world, selected by New York based curator and artist Maddy Rosenberg. The exhibition focuses on two key themes; first, the ways in which book artists utilise different technologies, both traditional and new, in order to realize their vision; and second, the relationship between literature and the physical structure of the book in which it is contained. Visitors will experience a dramatic re-invention of the gallery as a place in which they can encounter the artist’s book in a direct and imaginative way.
Marianne R. Petit
Artists include: Jay Bolotin, Erik & Martin Demaine, Tina Flau, Art Hazelwood, Valerie Huhn, Kahn + Selesnick, Eunkang Koh, Julia Farrer Lo, Despo Magoni, Max Marek, Heidi Neilson, Geraldine Ondrizek, Marianne R. Petit, Maddy Rosenberg, Susan Rostow, Buzz Spector, Sarah Stengle, Carolyn Thompson, Mary Ting, and Jadwiga Tryzno.
Special guests include Liberature (Katarzyna Bazarnik and Zenon Fajfer). Liberature is a new literary genre which refers to works in which words, their typographic arrangements, graphic elements and the architecture of the book itself combine into an integral whole.
Erik Demaine & Martin Demaine
If we return to the early days of humans, arguably the first books, visual passages of communication, are image-based text. The cave paintings are an overlay narrative of life over centuries; the temples of Egypt are slabs of chiseled stone in image with text, text as image; Chinese scrolls unroll with brush line and value, building landscapes of a story; a Mayan codex is a folded accordion unbound paper book. The image and the text, combined with structure, has always been integral to the book, unknowing collaborations among artists, artisans and scribes. The invention of the printing press, a simple mechanical technology allowing us to disseminate information quicker to a mass audience with the advent of public education, may have become a tool in the positive development in the spreading of knowledge. However, we slowly began to forget about the artistry of the book and reduced it to a mere bound container of written information, occasionally “illustrated.” In the West, the line lost its visual magic and it became just a letter to spell a word.
Susan Rostow
But to the artist, ever experimenting with the visual and textual meaning, the separation never quite processed. Others may not have looked upon their work as a book because the form was not yet recognized as such, but the work was meant to be read in the most basic meaning of the word. This is an exhibition of contemporary artists who work with the book as an art form, whether it be the word in search of the visual or the visual seeking the word or a balancing act between the two, these international artists incorporate old and new technology, materials that may or may not include paper, and for that matter, may or may not include printing, sometimes searching back in history for technologies even simpler than the printing press.
Despo Magoni
Save These Dates:
Saturday, 14 May, 1 5 pm
Round Table Discussion
Curator Maddy Rosenberg will be joined by a panel of experts to discuss artists books and their significance within the world of contemporary fine art. More details coming soon.
Sunday, 15 May, 11 am – 5 pm
A day of workshops, talks and activities with special guests and members of local artist networks, including Sussex Book Arts Collective, Fabula and Phoenix Brighton.
Heidi Neilson
Art Hazelwood
30 April – 12 June 2016, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
Phoenix Brighton Gallery
Source: Press & Release 2016 – Phoenix Brighton
Sussex ArtBeat 