Bibiana Padilla Maltos, 0c, 2021, ed. 1

This hand carved stamp accordion was sent in for a show of Bibiana's at The Stamp Art gallery in June, 2021. Born in Mexico, Bibiana now resides in Los Angeles, and has been a Fluxus performance artist for over 20 years, and most recently she hosted the last FLUX/fest in California, 2020.

For more info: bibianapadillamaltos.com

A big thank you to Picasso Gaglione (the most famous artist this side of the Rockies), for donating this work to the accordion archive.

14 double-sided pages, each page 2"x 2", and when opened 2' 4".

Richard O. Tyler, The Planets, 2020; Folk Tales, The Seven Deadly Sins, 2020; The Disguises of Death, 2020, Uranian Phalanstery and Press, New York

 

Insert about these reprints of Richard O. Tyler's (1926-1983) woodcut portfolios 

created between 1955-1958.

 

"The Uranian Phalanstery and the First New York Gnostic Lyceum Temple were established on the vernal equinox of 1959 by Tyler (alias Rev. Relytor, Dr. Uranian) and his wife Dorothea Baer (1926-2012) (alias Mm. Reab). The group moved into their 'lodge' at 328 East 4th Street, New York, into two side-by-side brownstones which housed the Lyceum and Rectory. The Phalanstry acted as a nexus for a range of gatherings and activities, a collective meeting place for a cast of artist-disciples to meditate collectively and create art. With Tyler as its de facto ambassador and minister, the group pushed for a communally-minded investigation into creative enlightenment and self-transcendence, melding a patchwork spiritualism with an avant garde practice of a "self-documented life" through which gnosticism and everyday experience were folded into an encompassing artwork." [https://www.printedmatter.org › programs › events]

These three works are contemporary accordion reproductions of Tyler's woodcuts prints that were created between 1995-58, and display his commitment to following the "Practice of the Eightfold Way on the Path," and exerciser "Creativity in Practice of the Path," executing a "self-documented life work on the way." [wikipedia]

This brief synopsis does not really do justice to the richer history of these publications/prints and to the activities of the Uranian Phalanstery and Press, but the above brief quote from a 2017 exhibition at Printed Matter provides a much richer history of this early artist collective and their myriad activities & philosophies, and to Richard O. Tyler himself.

Details for each accordion are below:

The Planets, 10 double-sided pages, individual pages 5.75" x 4", when open 3' 4".

Folk Tales: The Seven Deadly Sins, 7 double-sided pages, individual pages 5.75" x 4", when open 2' 4".

The Disguises of Death, 10 double-sided pages, individual pages 5.75" x 4", when open 3' 4".

back cover

                  

                                

back cover

          

 

                               

back cover

 

Fritz Sauter, See My Friends, Redfoxpress, Ireland, 2014, ed. 60

Another smart silkscreen accordion from Redfoxpress. Born in 1952 in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, Sauter has worked as a graphic designer, journalist and poet in both Germany and Switzerland. Influenced by Dada, in 1990 he founded Edition Bim, "the smallest publishing house in the smallest world."

8 double-sided pages, individual 6.25" x 3.75", and when fully opened 2' 6".

reverse side

Aram Saroyan, Top, Primary Information, New York, 1965/2021, 1st edition/60, 2nd edition/240

The writer Aram Saroyan made his name in the '60s as a minimalist, conceptual and Concrete poet best known for his one-word poems. The original press run for TOP was supposed to be 300 copies but for reasons "no longer ascertainable" only around sixty were published. This new version by Primary Information completes the original publication run in a signed edition of 240. 

This concrete poem "...represents a top that spins from slow to fast to slow as the reader moves through the book. The colors and letters (comprising an obliquely glimpsed word) change in accordance with each page to notate the speed of the spinning top. Produced as an accordion fold with taped seams, TOP can be read as a book or unfolded to stand on a shelf or table." [quote from the statement on back page of the work].

From a purely technical and formal point of view, this beautiful accordion is made up of a portfolio of individual prints taped together at the seams. While the front and back pages are taped inside and back, the inside pages are only taped on the inside, producing the rather strange sensation of a sticky binding when you run your fingers along the outside edge.

10 single-sided pages (except for last page), individual pages 11" x 8.5", and when fully opened 7' 1".

last page of work

back page

Nolan Pelletier, Mirror World, Tan & Loose Press, Los Angeles, 2017, ed. 500

This Toronto based illustrator says of Mirror World that "It's fun being able to curate a tiny world and populate it with things you love...that was the main impetus behind Mirror World, putting a bunch of the carnival and dream imagery that was rattling around in my head to paper. I like that with art you can collect the old things you love, while simultaneously creating something new. It's therapeutic."  Inspired by the architecture of Coney Island and carnival signage he states "I love how overwhelming, colourful and electric carnivals are and wanted to capture a bit of that energy. Even though they're still images, I want all the art I do to vibrate with movement and pattern."

Further in his interview with Lucy Bourton (Itsnicethat.com, March, 12, 2018) he notes that "The front side of Mirror World features a crowd of identical men wearing pink and yellow suits and bowler hats. Something about the repetition of the bowler men was mesmerizing to me, and so I just kept repeating them...the back side is a distorted vision of the same scene where everything is reversed—day is night, the scale has changed and buildings are merging etc... As it progresses from left to right, the scene gets more and more surreal until in the final panel it breaks down completely."

6 double-sided pages, individual page 8" x 5.5", and when opened 2' 9".

back cover

below is a recent illustration of Pelletier's that was published in the 

New York Times Book Review, Sunday, Nov., 7, 2021

Tanaz Modabber, Other Scales of Prosody, Bombdiabooks, Berlin, Germany, 2017, ed. 500

Tanaz Modabber is an Iranian artist and architect living in Berlin. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a BA in Landscape Architecture and an MA in Architecture. Her practice is involved with site-specific installations, intimate studio works, and architecture projects that have been influenced by her training in both Western and Persian classical music. [from introduction]

The definition of 'prosody' is the patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry, and the patterns of stress and intonation in a language. Presumably this also includes music as well!

This publication also includes a 5 page double-sided accordion with a text by Cassandra Edlefsen Lasch titled "Meter As Meter As," that explores in greater depth Modabber's artistic practice.

The front side of this accordion is really a historical overview of Persian music, instruments, composition and features images and writings exploring this theme. The reverse side of this features a scroll-like drawing that "considers the principles of Persian classical music, such as cyclicality, continuity, rhythmic structure, and improvisation. This homonymous publication has been compiled through multiple stages of translation, from a geometric foldable structure, over mapping and transcription, to a sound composition." [artists' statement]

This brief introduction to this quite complex accordion really does not do justice to what Modabber is attempting to do here, and it can only serve to give a glimpse of the rich history that Modabber is documenting here. 

44 double-sided pages, individual pages 9" x 7" and when fully opened 25' 8".

accordion with cover

reverse side

statement about the publication