Allan Kaprow | Collagen, Environments, Videos, Broschüren, Geschichten, Happening und Activity-Dokumente 1956-1986.

Allan Kaprow

Collagen, Environments, Videos, Broschüren, Geschichten, Happening 

und Activity-Dokumente 1956-1986. 

Dortmund, Germany: Museum am Ostwall, 1986

150 pp., 27.5 x 17 cm., hardcover

Edition size unknown

An exhibition catalogue published in conjunction with a career retrospective show held August 24th to October 5th, 1986 in Germany. 

Kaprow invited friends and colleagues (Wolfgang Feelisch, Inge Baecker, Robert C. Morgan, Milan Knizák, Barbara Smith, Joachim Diederichs) to write about him and his work, from both personal and critical positions. The title also includes a discussion between the artist and Wolf Vostell, as well as a bibliography and artist's exhibition history. Text in English and German, with photography by Eric Andersen, Dick Higgins, and Peter Moore.

Designed by Kaprow, the book features a corrugated cardboard cover, held together with two brass screws. The title additionally includes a bibliography and artist's exhibition history.

Fiona Banner | Table Stops

Fiona Banner

Table Stops

London, UK: The Multiples Store, 2000

30 x 30 x 16cm

Edition of 100

Fiona Banner followed the ‘wordscapes’ for which she initially became known - sprawling objective texts describing films ranging from Lawrence of Arabia to Point Break to pornography and, in her book The Nam, films about the Viet Nam War - with works using only punctuation, and no words. The ‘full stop’ (or ‘period’ in American English) became the subject of “the world’s smallest neon” [see previous post], a series of graphite drawings and sculptural works made out of styrofoam, concrete and as inflatables. [see below].

Table Stops is a collection of seven glazed ceramic full stops, housed in a compartmentalized wooden box. Each full stop presents a different font reimagined as a three-dimensional object: Avant Garde, Courier, Formata, Klang, Nuptial, Optical and Slipstream. They are enlarged to the same scale, though vary considerably in size and shape.

"Table Stops are abstract points of focus. Like tableware, or executive toys, they are to be handled and moved around. The act of arranging and rearranging them enacts a silent conversation.”

- Fiona Banner

Fiona Banner | Full Stop

Fiona Banner

Full Stop

London, UK: Frith Street Gallery, 1997

19 x 5 cm.

Edition of 3 signed copies

Characterized by the artist as “the smallest neon in the world”, this full stop (or period) by Fiona Banner followed the artist’s bookwork, THE NAM [below], in which she recounted the entire plots of five films about the Viet Nam War, to create an “unreadable novel”. 

The neon and lead on plastic mount work comes housed in a wooden box and is accompanied by a signed certificate. 

The potential of the punctuation mark would continue to inspire Banners work in the decades to come (see next post). 

“It is just a little bit of neon glass that I blew. I liked it because it is a breath encapsulated in glass, as a full stop is a breath in some ways. It represented a gap for me in terms of ideas. I wasn’t sure what to do next as an artist. After a while I tried looking at that awkwardness physically, in terms of making something of it, instead of it being an abstract pain. Also there are no neon full stops out there."

- Fiona Banner

Kara Walker | (Untitled] Pitcher

Kara Walker

(Untitled] Pitcher

New York City, USA: Artware Editions, 2014

8.25 x 7.6 x 5.75"

Edition of 1000 numbered copies

A white porcelain pitcher by Kara Walker featuring two of her signature black silhouettes. The artist's signature is stamped on the bottom and each pitcher is individually numbered. A signed and numbered certificate of authenticity issued by the manufacturer Bernardaud (Limoges, France) accompanies each example.

Ian Hamilton Finlay

Ian Hamilton Finlay died on this day twenty years ago, at the age of eighty. 

Daniel Spoerri

Daniel Spoerri was born on this day in 1930.