Wednesday 28 July 2010

ShelfLife: a biblio-sideshow (EAF 2010)

http://www.edinburghartfestival.com/10-festival-programme/jaaliceklarr-shelflife-a-biblio-sideshow/

6 comments:

  1. Shelflife: A Biblio-Sideshow
    Curated by Kate Andrews for JaAliceKlarr
    www.jaaliceklarr.blogspot.com


    III Katharina Gaenssler III Alex Gross III Lucy Roscoe III
    III Gregor Sailer III Ryan Siegan-Smith III John Stezaker for mono III with Showcases by: III Analogue Books III Owl & Lion III mono III

    Hosted by:
    Edinburgh College of Art Library Level 1, Evolution House,
    78 West Port,
    EH1 2LE

    30th July – 3rd September 2010
    Monday - Thursday: 9.15 am – 4pm
    Friday: 10am - 4pm

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  2. As part of the 2010 Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF), Edinburgh College of Art (ECA)’s library will host ShelfLife, a showcase exhibition of artists’ bookworks curated by JaAliceKlarr projects.
    Conceived of by self-professed bibliophiles, this exhibition aims to highlight the diversity of contemporary artistic praxis which utilises printed media as its format and ‘jumping-off-point’.
    It further operates as a mise en abyme; selecting cross-genre work which takes the book as its point of departure- representing absent spaces and places, trains of thought, and allowing individual works to function as ‘exhibitions in print’ (Just as a whole world can exist within a book, so may a singular creative space: - so might we find a book contained within a book; an exhibition within a book - in an exhibition, within a library…).
    The result is a self-reflexive information and inspiration resource; part-archive, part-exhibition and part side-show to the wealth of resources which the host institution houses.

    Comprised of seldom-seen artists’ books from the ECA library collection, specially-made Bookworks by emergent artists (including JaAliceKlarr’s own publication-in-progress), opuscula, pamphlets and single pages written or devised by artists; ShelfLife aims to represent these formats of work outwith the traditional archival model. This presentation can be seen as an extension of the reading material which is permanently instated in art libraries and a chance for it to become less peripheral to exhibition-making and to artists’ praxis.

    The ECA library (situated in Evolution house Learning and Research Zone, in Edinburgh’s literary quarter- the West Port) is an innovative environment for learning, teaching and research; an essential resource for creative production which JAK hope to highlight to a new audience.

    A book is immediate, tangible and deeply personal both to create and to experience. JaAliceKlarr are keen to explore the possibilities to transgress the boundaries between the written and the visual, between the transportable book and the uncontainable creative concept; with a firm belief in the potential of the printed page to continue to tap into and carry a limitless source of invention, imagination and creativity; incontrovertible, even in the digital age.

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  3. It further operates as a mise en abyme; selecting cross-genre work which takes the book as its point of departure- representing absent spaces and places, trains of thought, and allowing individual works to function as ‘exhibitions in print’ (Just as a whole world can exist within a book, so may a singular creative space: - so might we find a book contained within a book; an exhibition within a book - in an exhibition, within a library…).
    The result is a self-reflexive information and inspiration resource; part-archive, part-exhibition and part side-show to the wealth of resources which the host institution houses.

    Comprised of seldom-seen artists’ books from the ECA library collection, specially-made Bookworks by emergent artists (including JaAliceKlarr’s own publication-in-progress), opuscula, pamphlets and single pages written or devised by artists; ShelfLife aims to represent these formats of work outwith the traditional archival model. This presentation can be seen as an extension of the reading material which is permanently instated in art libraries and a chance for it to become less peripheral to exhibition-making and to artists’ praxis.

    The ECA library (situated in Evolution house Learning and Research Zone, in Edinburgh’s literary quarter- the West Port) is an innovative environment for learning, teaching and research; an essential resource for creative production which JAK hope to highlight to a new audience.

    A book is immediate, tangible and deeply personal both to create and to experience. JaAliceKlarr are keen to explore the possibilities to transgress the boundaries between the written and the visual, between the transportable book and the uncontainable creative concept; with a firm belief in the potential of the printed page to continue to tap into and carry a limitless source of invention, imagination and creativity; incontrovertible, even in the digital age.

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  4. Events:
    Mondays 2-4pm, (or by email appointment): Petting Zoo- a chance to handle the books
    Thursday 26th August 4 - 5pm: Finissage featuring the launch of new work, screenings of short films by exhibiting artists and a brief introduction to Shelflife by its curator.
    Ongoing: Reading corner

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  5. 2. The principal works around which the show is centered are:

    - Katharina Gaenssler Merzbaubuch - a three-volume photographic bookwork exploring the multi-faceted space of Kurt Schwitters’ Merzbau in Hannover from the three photographic perspectives (of the surviving documentation of the original) from which its recreation in the early 1980s was made possible.
    - John Stezaker for MONO - a visual essay by the seminal collage artist for the third volume of this free quarterly paper
    - JaAliceKlarr Publication – extracts from a bookwork in progress by the curators which attempts to explore the format of their first two exhibitions by transgressing the create/curate divide in print
    - Ryan Siegan-Smith I don’t want to make a book- a short animation discussing the didactic impetus for artists working in book format
    - Alex Gross OTTO- a site-specific sculptural work in response to the exhibition, inspired by a short story by Russian author Vladimir Nabokov
    - Gregor Sailer Subraum- A publication of a photographic body of work, focussed on the architecture and functionality of the contemporary underground space in Germany’s Ruhrgebiet. The project seeks to expose locations which would not normally be accessible to the general public
    - Lucy Roscoe- TheBookshelf – A hand-crafted artists’ book by the Edinburgh- based illustrator

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  6. Also featured:
    - A selection of artists’ books and books by artists from the ECA library collection and archive featuring the work of Fischli and Weiss, Edinburgh’s Morning Star Press, Joseph Kosuth, Jeremy Deller, Alec Finlay, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Gilbert and George and many more

    - A show-reel of ‘video-Bookworks’ will accompany the exhibition as a means to further disseminate the autonomy of the Book as a carrier of knowledge. This includes a UK premiere of the award-winning Camera Obscura film IN-TIMER by Gregor Sailer and Jörg Jäger (screening 26th August)

    - A showcase of specially-created artists’ books by local artists, made with the co-operation of Owl and Lion Gallery. This new work will be launched on the 26th August.

    - A showcase of the entire series of Running Amok Zine, published by Analogue books.

    - A showcase by Mono, will include its third issue, which will be available freely throughout the Art Festival. Issue 3 of the free quarterly paper dedicated to publishing image based essays is compiled by seminal collage artist John Stezaker.

    - A ‘petting-Zoo’ will operate on a weekly basis where all featured works will be available to handle and read individually

    - A reading and interpretation section will feature further bookworks which relate to and expand-upon the principal ideas disseminated within the main featured works- these will be openly accessible at all times during the run of the exhibition


    The project is initiated and curated by Kate Andrews under the collaborative identity of JaAliceKlarr projects in order to explore cross-disciplinarity stemming from creative interest in art-making, writing and a wish to extend this into the realm of ‘creative curating’.

    Though JaAliceKlarr is the collaborative partnership between Kate Andrews and Louise Briggs- Briggs has not been involved in the production of this exhibition

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