Tauba Auerbach
Marbles for the John J. Harvey
New York City, USA: Diagonal Press, 2018.
104 pp., 9 x 11”, spiral-bound
Edition size unknown
Tauba Auerbach established Diagonal Press in 2013 with a mission to "make art in the form of publications.” The press produces books in open editions, and nothing is signed or numbered. They aim to "devise a business structure in which the publications are affordable and their value determined by what one gets out of owning them, rather than from reselling them.”
This laser-printed, plastic comb-bound book with a die-cut cover sells for $28.00, here.
"In 2018 I was commissioned by Public Art Fund and 14-18 Now to dazzle the John J. Harvey, an historic fireboat in the New York Harbor. Built in 1931 and retired in 1994, the Harvey was rescued at a scrap auction by a group of maritime enthusiasts. Since then, the boat has been maintained by volunteers, operating as a small museum and offering free rides to the public. The Harvey became an unexpected hero on 9/11, springing back into service and pumping water for 80 hours. The story is memorialized in a Maira Kalman book.
Dazzle Camouflage was a painting strategy invented by the artist Norman Wilkinson during WWI. Usually comprised of sharp, contrasting, stripey designs, dazzle was devised to confuse rather than conceal. For my interpretation of the tradition, I marbled paper to generate high contrast images of fluid behaviours. This book chronicles the project and compiles a selection of the unused designs."
- Tauba Auerbach
