Monday, March 6, 2023

Escobar-Jaramillo, Santiago, Can you hear us? (Puedes oirme?), Raya Editorial, Manizales, Columbia, 2022, ed. 200


Based in Manizales, Escobar-Jaramillo is an architect at the National University of Columbia who received an MA in the Photography and Urban Cultures course at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is also a photographer who has published a number of books and has been an active participant in international photography festivals. 

This work with its provocative sub-heading in both English and Spanish that reads: "'Can you hear us?' says the pavement at Brick Lane. 'Can you hear us?' cries the ground in Columbia," is illustrated by photographs of a work by another Columbian artist, Doris Salcedo that was installed in the Turbine Hall in the Tate Gallery in 2007. The work's title was Shibboleth which wikipedia explains as "any custom or tradition, usually a choice of phrasing or even a single word, that distinguishes one group of people from another," was part of Salcedo's Unilever Series and consisted of creating a physical crack in the Turbine Hall's floor that ran the length of the building, as shown in this accordion.

I'm assuming the military figures placed at the edge of the crack are part of an intervention by Escobar-Jaramillo and that they are in dialogue with both the political history of Columbia in which Salcedo had family members who were 'disappeared,' and the immigrant and working class history of London's Brick Lane. In a recent email to me Santiago states that the "...placement of the scaled-down soldiers in front of the intervention allowed it to no longer be seen as a crack but as a chasm: one that divides and separates us as a society."

I'll let the Tate Gallery's explanation of this work help us expand our understanding of the underlying themes of this installation, as well as Escobar-Jaramillo's interest in making this work around a fellow Columbian's literally ground-breaking piece.

"In particular, Salcedo is addressing a long legacy of racism and colonialism that underlies the modern world. A ‘shibboleth’ is a custom, phrase or use of language that acts as a test of belonging to a particular social group or class. By definition, it is used to exclude those deemed unsuitable to join this group.

‘The history of racism’, Salcedo writes, ‘runs parallel to the history of modernity, and is its untold dark side’. For hundreds of years, Western ideas of progress and prosperity have been underpinned by colonial exploitation and the withdrawal of basic rights from others. Our own time, Salcedo is keen to remind us, remains defined by the existence of a huge socially excluded underclass, in Western as well as post-colonial societies.

In breaking open the floor of the museum, Salcedo is exposing a fracture in modernity itself. Her work encourages us to confront uncomfortable truths about our history and about ourselves with absolute candidness, and without self-deception."

5 double-sided pages, individually 1.75" x 4.25' and when fully opened 1ft 9.25".




reverse



back of accordion


R. Clarke-Davis, a commonplace book: respair, Kiddie Viddy Press, 2023


The latest accordion/puzzle book from Clarke-Davis. Looking further into one rather curious word in the title — respair, I discovered that until recently it had been relegated to the backwaters of language. Respair means the opposite of 'despair' and thus suggests a period of regeneration and renewed hope. An article titled "Why Words Die" in The Economist in 2017 renewed interest in this neglected word. Follow this link for more about this noun & verb: Fritinancy: Word of the week: Respair

8 double-sided pages, individually 5" X 4", when opened 17".






back cover

David A. Carter, One Red Dot [A Pop-Up Book for Children of All Ages], Simon & Schuster, New York, 2004/2005


In my recent forays into the world of pop-up books one figure stands out and that's David A. Carter. As you can see from the pages below, One Red Dot delivers startlingly original and complex pop-ups in every two-page spread. Carter has done a large number of other pop-up books of equal quality, including an exhibition of his pop-ups enlarged to human scale, see here; The website of pop up artist and author David A. Carter

For more information about this prodigious pop-up artist, illustrator and author check out his really informative website: PopUpBooks - Author, paper engineer & illustrator David A. Carter

16 pages, individual pages 9" x 9".








back cover

Diane Borsato, Cloud Collection, Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, Sackville, Canada, 2021


One category of accordions is the exhibition catalogue as they serve as an economical introduction to the artist(s) and the work on display, and for the most part they play a purely informative function. But sometimes they move beyond this utilitarian function and become objects of beauty in themselves, and this catalogue for an exhibition conceived by Diane Borsato does just that. Kudos should also go to JP King, the designer, for creating this wonderful design that seems so in sync with Borsato's cloud project.

The exhibition was comprised of works selected by Borsato from the permanent collection of the Owens Art Gallery that for her all related to clouds in different types of ways. In this catalogue Borsato combines reproductions of the works and accompanies each of them with short texts that illustrate the nature and topography of clouds. These texts and images all work beautifully together and this accordion left me with a renewed respect for these most elusive of nature's artifacts.

8 pages double-side, individual page 10" x 7.75", and when fully opened 6ft 2".




reverse side



back cover