Saturday, April 30, 2011

Kara Walker, My Complement, My Enemy My Oppressor, My Love, Feb. 17- May 13, 2007, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis



This accordion served as the invitation for an exhibition preview party for the first full-scale U.S. museum survey of Kara Walker's work that ran from Feb. 17 - May 13, 2007 at the Walker Art Center. This publication treads an interesting line between being publicity for the show and a work in itself. 5.75" (H) 17.5" (L)

The Walker Art Center developed a very rich educational website to go with this exhibition and it can be accessed at: Kara Walker | Main | Home Page browse

Sol LeWitt, Tilted Forms: Wall Drawings, Westfalischer Kunstverein, Munster, Germany, 1987







This accordion documents a Sol LeWitt mural installation that covered four walls of a gallery in the Westfalischer Kunstverein, in Munster, Germany between June 11 - July 27, 1987. The last two images above show the mural in-situ. The curator Marianne Stockebrand, concerned about documenting this temporary work writes in this catalogue about her choice of the accordion format, "The reason that we nevertheless ventured to reduce the wall-drawings to the size of a book is our conviction that this marvellous (sic) painting (which was painted over at the end of the exhibition) should be preserved at least in this way. We hope that with the folding leporello, we have found a form which comes up to the character of the exhibition."  9.25" (H) 166.6"/13.85' (L)

Borja de Pedro, Inner Travel, Barcelona, Spain, 1989





Interesting offset printed bookwork with an intriguing wraparound cover for this continuous watercolor artwork. Borja describes Inner Travel as "...a journey, all of 225 centimetres long, that Borja de Pedro undertakes on paper and by way of colour; setting out from under the trees, with his dog, crosses the heart of the forest, that measures 12,5 x 9 x 3 centimetres when folded." 4.9" (H) 88.5" (L) In 2008 this Spanish artist achieved some local notoriety in Kyoto, Japan when he created a portrait of Ghandi using a bicycle as a paintbrush, further info and image at: MAHATMA GANDHI COMMUNITY FORUM • View topic - Gandhi painting in Kyoto by Borja de Pedro (video)

La Jicara, #0, 1992, Taller Lenateros, Chiapas, Mexico [edition of 200]






It's rare to find an art journal published in an accordion format but this totally unique silk-screened and double-sided publication is rare in more ways than one. La Jicara (the Gourd) is published by indigenous Maya women in San Cristobal, Chiapas, to promote Mayan culture, and its format embodies both pride, and resistance as it's modeled on the codices created by the women's Maya ancestors that were all but destroyed by the Conquistadors and priests during the Spanish conquest. This periodical is only one of a number of publications produced by Taller Lenateros (The Woodlander's Workshop) which was founded in 1975 by an expatriate American, Ambar Past to promote Amerindian culture. The full range of their beautiful artists' books, prints and other publications can be seen, and purchased at:Taller leƱateros - papel hecho a mano.

I'm uncertain as to whether La Jicara is still being published but their current catalogue lists #8 (1998). In the summer of 2003 in Oaxaca I had the memorable experience of finding an almost complete set in the public art library near the main church.  8.5" (H)  88" (L)