Fra biblioteket
Four picks from the library for May:
Frederick Kiesler: Function Follows Vision, Vision Follows Reality
Kunsthalle Wien, Sternberg Press, 2015
Daniel Knorr
documenta 14, 2017
Sharon Lockhart, Noa Eshkol
Prestel, 2012
My Wavy Sarong, Jasper Griepink
Rock Bottom, 2016
The first publication from this selection of books brings together a selection of Friedrich Kiesler’s texts on exhibition design, including several plans for visionary unrealized displays. Working for both theatre, art and department stores, Kiesler was one of the first to think of ways to dramatize the gallery space. Next to tips about lighting and wood, we learn about the use of projections instead of painted/constructed stage-design, magic lanterns, flexible ceilings and elastic architectural areas. I particularly enjoyed the chapters Using Nontransparent Materials and Using Transparent Materials.
A sheet of thick paper is usually not transparent, but when the pages of a book have small objects stuck between them, and are pressed under such high pressure that a vague relief appears on the first pages, and that relief gradually becomes clearer once you get closer to the object, we might call it semi-transparent. Daniel Knorr collected found objects in public spaces and inserted them between the pages of books. He has done so in several countries, and the book in the library at Rogaland Kunstsenter is the 11th edition and was issued on the occasion of Knorr’s participation at documenta14 this summer. This copy has a plastic cactus imprinted into the paper of several pages. Other found objects are: a handwritten note, a business card and various unrecognizable abandoned objects. Turning the pages, I feel the kind of wonder and excitement that I felt as a seven-year-old digging in sand. The book includes a memory stick with footage from the making-of.
The third publication in this list is the result of Sharon Lockhart’s research on the work of choreographer and textile designer Noa Eshkol. While Eshkol used to separate her wall carpets from her dances, Lockhart brings them together in her video installation Five Dances and Nine Wall Carpets by Noa Eshkol.
The last one of this month’s picks is Jasper Griepink’s My Wavy Sarong, a small optimistic looking book with chapter titles like ‘Coral’, ‘Lotus’ and ‘Mandala’. The text reflects upon Griepink’s attempts to bridge the distance between himself and the ‘other’ during a trip through Indonesia: ‘Carrying a backpack stuffed with fantasies, dreams and expectations, I went on my first trip into the tropics.’