Monday, April 30, 2018

24 Stunden















[Various Artists]
24 Stunden
Itzehoe. Germany: Verlag Hansen & Hansen, 1965
[400] pp., 10.5 x 7.4 x 4.3 cm., softcover
Edition size unknown

24 Studen (or 24 Hours) is a hybrid exhibition catalogue, artist book and multiple, which documents a legendary 24-hour long performance that took place at the Galerie Parnass, Wuppertal, Germany, on June 5, 1965.

The gallerist Rolf Jährling turned his home into  performance space and invited six artists to perform in separate rooms for the full 24 hours - Joseph Beuys, Bazon Brock, Nam June Paik, Eckart Rahn, Tomas Schmit and  Wolf Vostell. Charlotte Moorman was the lone female participant, as she was performing with Paik, her longtime collaborator.

The performance was timed to end at midnight on June 6th (the twenty-first anniversary of D-Day) but only Moorman and Vostell acknowledged this. Vostell performed wearing a gas mask and Moorman wept during her performance.  "I've always tried to hold back the tears when I hear the [wartime sound effects on the] tapes, but this time I didn't hold back," she writes.

The book features documentation by Ute Klophaus and a small packet of flour hidden in the back pages of the book. This is part of Vostell’s contributions, along with the instructions: “occupy yourself with flour for twenty-four hours."

Sunday, April 29, 2018

Takashi Murakami | Kaikai (Frazzled)




Takashi Murakami
Kaikai (Frazzled)
Tokyo, Japan: Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd., [nd]
10" x 6" x 4"
Edition size unknown

Saturday, April 28, 2018

Kim Gordon




Kim Gordon turns 65 today.

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Joseph Beuys | Stamp Sculpture








Joseph Beuys
Stempelplastik  (Stamp Sculpture)
Heidelberg, Germany: Edition Staeck, 1982
19 x 10.5 x 15 cm.
Edition of 35 signed and numbered copies [+ 3 AP]

Thirty-seven copies of the PVC postcard the artist had published Staeck eight years prior, and a Hauptstrom rubber stamp.











Tuesday, April 24, 2018

This Week on Tumblr: Jenny Holzer









Robert The | Philosophical Investigations





Robert The
Philosophical Investigations, 2017
Altered copy of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, 1967
21.6 × 12.7 × 3.6 cm.
Unique

Sunday, April 22, 2018

Günther Uecker | Traffic paint




Günther Uecker
Traffic paint
New York City, USA: Edition Kineticism Press, 1966
17.5 x 12.5 x 2.7 cm.
Edition of 2000 signed and numbered copies

Nails and road marking paint on panel. The planned edition of 2000 was not reportedly never completed.

Saturday, April 21, 2018

Spin: Turning Records Into Art




"Spin: Turning Records Into Art
April 21st – August 5th, 2018
Curated by Joey Yates

Spin: Turning Records Into Art is a show of artist made records and record covers, alongside recent projects by contemporary artists who make use of the record in their sculptures and installations, including Rutherford Chang, Ajit Chauhan, Jamal Cyrus, David Ellis, Terrence Hammonds, Jennie C. Jones and Cynthia Norton. A substantial portion of the show features records from the collection of Michael Lowe, a Cincinnati based art collector with over 2000 records that is international in scope and reflects the myriad historical relationships between the artist and the record, a range that extends from conceptual works by artists like Joseph Beuys, Lawrence Weiner, and Christian Marclay to albums with iconic images by Jean Michel-Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Barbara Kruger and Yoko Ono. Artists from Kentucky are included, featuring album covers by Lexington based artist Robert Beatty, and Louisville artists Kathleen Lolley, Joanne Oldham, Letitia Quesenberry, Jason Noble, Jeff Mueller, and Michael O’Bannon.

Initially designed to function as a protective sleeve, record covers have evolved into a highly sophisticated form of artistic expression. Notwithstanding the value of music videos and the proliferation of merchandise such as t-shirts and posters, records have become less disposable and more established as cultural artifacts and art objects in our current post-media age of music consumption. Musicians and artists alike have long believed that the physical products associated with music listening, from the album cover, the record sleeve and liner notes to inserts and the color of the vinyl, all contribute to a deeper listening experience.

Over the last century the record has become an effective tool for artists seeking new creative possibilities. Artists of the avant-garde in the early 1900’s, most notably the Dadaists and the Italian Futurists, used the record to document their radical ideas, and to disseminate their political and social experiments in sound, language, and music. Spin explores the current intersection of records and visual art, demonstrating the album’s remarkable position as art object and cultural artifact in contemporary artistic practice.

Records produced before the 1940’s commonly came in the form of 10 and 12-inch brittle discs made of shellac resin and played at a speed of 78 revolutions per minute (rpm), otherwise known as “seventy-eights.” Often distributed in card covers, sometimes with a circular cutout that allowed the information label to be seen, they were just as often sold in brown paper bags without any accompanying visuals or materials. In 1940 Alex Steinweiss was working as the art director for Columbia Records designing posters, books and booklets when a creative spark led him to design the first illustrated record cover. By 1948 Columbia had introduced the now standard microgroove 33 1⁄3 rpm Long Playing or LP record format with the new emblazoned album covers firmly positioned as an enduring and integral component to the longevity and collectability of recorded music."

- press release


[pictured above: Rutherford Chang's We Buy White Albums, which now totals 1987 copies of the Beatles' 
eponymously titled double LP. ]

Friday, April 20, 2018

Mona Hatoum | Set in Stone




Mona Hatoum
Set in Stone
Munich/New York City, Germany/USA: Edition Schellmann, 2002
20 x 65 x 14 cm
Edition of 30 signed and numbered copies

Carrara marble, carved typography, string, oak wood shelf.

Thursday, April 19, 2018

turn the page Artists Book Fair and Symposium



The turn the page Artists Book Fair is a two day event held in the Atrium of The Forum building in Norwich City Centre, held on Friday 25th and Saturday 26th May. turn the page 2018 will feature work by over 60 individual artists, small & fine presses, independent publishers and artists groups, as well as live music, poetry performances, talks and demonstrations.

Entry to the book fair is free and entrance to the symposium is ticketed. Details can be found at www.turnthepage.org.uk/symposium and https://www.facebook.com/ttpBookArt, or by contacting ttpbookfair@gmail.com.


“Taking over the directorship of turn the page has been a wonderful and exhilarating challenge. The fair has long been one of my favourite events in the UK art book arts scene and having the chance to contribute to the development of the fair is a joy. I am thrilled beyond imagining to be exhibiting work by Audrey Niffenegger, I have long been a fan of her work and the chance to share it at the fair is a privilege. The artists, artists groups and publishers exhibiting at the fair this year represent some of the most exciting book artists working within the UK today and I am sure everyone visiting the fair will thoroughly enjoy and be inspired by the event.”
 - Rosie Sherwood, artist/publisher and newly appointed Creative Director of the fair


Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Robert Gober | Heat











Robert Gober
Heat
New York City, USA: The Library Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1989
33.7 x 23.5 cm. 
Edition of 140 [+10 AP] signed copies

A collaboration between Gober and author Joyce Carol Oates, Heat is a pair of white leather diaries housed in a purple linen covered box. The diaries feature genitalia endpapers and the text of a 3000-word story about the murder of two eleven-year-old identical twins, Rhea and Rhonda Kunkel. The text is reproduced in the artist's handwriting. 

A year and a half ago Christies sold one of these for $375 US, less than a third of the low estimate ($1500 - $2500).