Open and Closed
ICON Museum of Art
Deakin University, Burwood
March-April 2006
Artist's Statement
Normally we pick up a book and get hooked by the text. We learn to approach a book as if it isn't there. We say: she has written a book, meaning that she has written a text.
But a book doesn't really go un-noticed. It surreptitiously influences us through its qualities as an object. A book - any book - presents a fixed sequence, bi-lateral symmetry, incremental rhythms of page after page. Its covers declare the autonomy of its contents, which are fixed, accurate and repeatable. Every time a book is handled, these physical properties are translated into values which are then dispersed elsewhere.
What if the text of a book were to be made inaccessible? Would this then draw attention to the book itself? What kind of methods could be used to shut in the text, but liberate the book? Can a book be mutable, have different rhythms, become asymmetrical and so on? Are there other hidden properties not obvious to bibliosceptics?
Just removing the text is not enough. If we handle and look through a blank book, we project words and pictures into it. A blank book is a book that has already disappeared. However, if we distract our attention from the text to something else, then the book emerges as a foreground which makes sense of both that something else and the unknown text inside. For this to work, the something else has to be a truly surprising or invasive action, substance or object so that the book is forced out into the open.
Typically, the actions in these works are tactile, and with some exceptions, are derived from the materials at hand in the world of books: staples, string, tape, liquid paper, pens, pencils, feathers which could be baby pens or thoughts ... Some of the books are arbitrary choices, that is, any book would have done for the process to work. Some of the books have suggested the action, either through their colour, title, typography and so on. None of the actions is an illustration or representation of that book's text, even if, in some, the visible text and the intrusion begin a dialogue in our imagination.
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Four installation views, with on the long wall: 16-page book (2004-5)
256 A4(cut to 3:2) black and coloured paper sheets wall-papered to wall
118 x 1288 cms
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vertical FULL/EMPTY (2002) printed packing tape on found book & Mug (2002) printed packing tape on porcelain mug |
PATILIRRKIRLI (2002) white pillow feathers set into found book |
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long green line (2002) green twine on found book & long line, pinned (2002) medical bandage with safety pin on found book |
HARDBACK/softback (2004) two found books, interleaved |
installation photographs by Nick Selenitsch
individual works photgraphed by Andrius Lipsys
All images on this page are the copyright of Dr Alex Selenitsch.
Disclaimer: This page, its contents and style, are the responsibility of the author and do not represent the views, policies or opinions of The University of Melbourne.
Authorised by: Dr Alex Selenitsch, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning
Updated: 14 December 2006