Objects2018shown

EXPERIMENTAL BOOKS

Chlorine-drawn folded books, and the rooms they were shown in

A folded book standing open in a V on a grey ground, its two bleached pages covered in pale constellation marks, letters and small drawn frames.

About ten small black concertina books standing open together on a large pale sheet that has been bleached into a splattered star map, on a white ground. — The books as shown: standing together on a floor sheet bleached into a star map.

A sheet of black paper pinned at the corners with small wooden pegs, holding four horizontal bands of invented letter-shapes burned pale gold through the paper. — The letter sheet. The glyphs are eaten through, not drawn on.

A tall square-section column folded from blue-black paper, standing on a pale cloth, its faces marked with pale eaten shapes. — A book folded into a standing column.

Small books folded from black paper. Each opens as a concertina and stands on its own edges instead of lying flat. The pages carry pale marks, dots, arcs, rows of glyphs, a figure with a balloon, and on some sheets the chlorine has eaten right through, leaving holes with singed rims. One is bound by hand in red thread.

A small black concertina book standing open on a cream cloth, its panels marked with pale dots, crosses and a round moon shape. — Opened out, the pages hold each other up.

Close view of dark blue paper where bleach has burned openings clean through the sheet, each hole ringed by a pale singed edge and fine fibres. — Left long enough, the mark becomes a hole.

A large fold-creased sheet of dark blue paper drawn in bleach: a standing figure made of fine pale threads, a long curved bow, boxes and scattered dots. — A sheet opened flat. The fold lines show where it becomes a book.

Chlorine drawn onto black paper. The bleach takes colour out rather than putting it on, so every mark is a subtraction; left long enough it stops being a mark and becomes a hole. He calls them experimental books because they do not meet the characteristics of a conventional book, no reading order, and letters that never make a word.

Several of the folded books standing open on a white plinth in a gallery, one propped upright behind them showing two pages of pale drawing, a small printed label beside them — Standing open at Espronceda, Barcelona, November 2020

One book standing open on a dark table, its folds catching the light so the creases glow amber against the black paper. — The books stand on their own edges.

Many of the books opened out across a dark surface, seen from above, their pages spread into a loose field of pale marks. — All of them opened at once.

The same arrangement from lower down, the books standing in a ring around one spread laid flat at the centre.

Cluj-Napoca, 2018, made for the degree show at UAD and set out on a floor sheet bleached into a star map. Three are named in the thesis: Looking for letters, Behind alphabets and language, and Primal. That middle title later returned as the subtitle of TOTEM.

Books standing close together with the light coming through the paper, so the marks read as shadows inside the sheet.

Several books open on a table in a dim room, warm light raking across them and loose sheets lying in front.

A long table in a stone-vaulted room carrying a grid of small bleached cards, lit warm against the bare walls. — Shown at Caustic, Galeria Casa Matei, Cluj-Napoca, May 2018.

They were shown again two years later at Espronceda in Barcelona, standing open on a plinth rather than on the floor, the same books, off the star map and up at eye level.

A display table against a white wall: small cards set out in rows, a black panel of marks standing behind them.

The same table from the other side, cards and one crumpled sheet among them.

A row of small pale cards standing on edge, each carrying one dark bleached shape, the row falling out of focus.

The pictures from the sixth onward are a shoot nobody had opened: the books photographed all together on a dark table with the light raking across them, the small cards laid out in rows on a display table, and the same work installed twice, once on a long table in a stone-vaulted room and once on white panels standing outdoors on grass.

A hand holding a black board with two small cards mounted on it, one dark and one yellowed. — How they were mounted.

Three white panels on wooden legs standing outdoors on grass in daylight. — Shown outdoors as well.

Three boards leaning against a concrete step in bright sun, their surfaces pale and worked.

How they are made has a page of its own, linked below: the paper folded, soaked until it goes the colour of tea, folded shut and bound in blue thread.

Medium: Chlorine on black paper, folded; one volume hand-bound in red thread
Materials: black paper, chlorine bleach, red thread
Dimensions: Per the thesis: Looking for letters, 7.5 × 10.5 cm folded / 21 × 30 cm unfolded. Behind alphabets and language, 7.5 × 7.5 × 21 cm. Primal (2017), 16 × 25 cm folded / 50 × 70 cm unfolded.
Role: Artist
Photography: Vittor Schetti
Exhibited: Degree show, University of Art and Design (UAD), Cluj-Napoca, 2018 · HYELTW?, Espronceda Institute of Art & Culture, Barcelona, 2020