Nicolas Nadé, Ingredients, Editions Matière, 2016 and Sammy Stein, Sculpture, Editions Matière, 2016

It was only while researching the works of both the two French comics artists featured here that I discovered their minimalist geometric and wordless works are a part of a new artistic movement called "French Abstract Formalist Comics." Someone who has written extensively about this movement is the comics critic Kim Jooha, and here she outlines some of its essential features and their effect upon the reader, writing "The emotionless and mechanical style and lack of narrative and words lead the reader to focus on the formal qualities and abstract concepts of comics, visual art, and printed media, such as space-time, movement, body, sign, texture, representation, transformation, repetition/difference, etc..."(1) She continues writing that "In the mid-2010s, a group of French artists began creating wordless comics with geometric and minimalist style and little or no narrative. What they show instead is more of a 'process.'"(2) 

The theme of structuralism in these works resonates with the Structural Cinema of Michael Snow's Wavelength (1968), with Nadé stating that during his studies at art school he was influenced by the works of experimental filmmakers such as Peter Tscherkassky, Peter Kubelka and Paul Sharits. Addressing their influence on his work he stated, "It was while studying them that I became interested in repetition and sequences; I found it fascinating watching them on film, they were like a comic strip on a 35mm stripe."(3)

On opening up Nadé's Ingredients the viewer is confronted by a series of sculptural elements set within a series of architectonic shapes, and on the reverse side he uses the whole accordion panorama to reveal a landscape with many of the previous elements in situ. I couldn't help wondering if Nadé was echoing features of the recently opened & celebrated earthwork by Michael Heizer located in the Nevada desert titled City (1970-2022), as the similarities are uncanny (see images below of City).

Stein's accordion plays with sequencing and transformation & destruction and creation in a series of one-page works that each illustrate a process of transformation both logical and yet with unexpected visual turns. 

Both accordions: 7 double-sided pages, individual pages 6" x 4.5", and when fully opened 2ft 6.5".

Footnotes

1. Jooha, Kim, "French Abstract Comics (French Structural Comics): An Artistic Movement," The Comics Journal, November 8, 2018. French Abstract Formalist Comics (French Structural Comics): An Artistic Movement - The Comics Journal

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid. This could also be a description of an accordion work!

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Nicolas Nadé, Ingredients, Editions Matière, 2016, ed 300

reverse side with panoramic image

back cover

Michael Heizer, City, Nevada Desert, 1970-2022

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Sammy Stein, Sculpture, Editions Matière, 2016, ed. 300

reverse side

back cover

Helen Craig, Mouse House Months, Random House, 1981

A really sweet children's miniature accordion that shows a family of mice as they experience each month of the year and their corresponding seasons. Exquisite illustrations by Helen Craig help the reader identify with these small, but very active creatures and how their environment changes throughout the year.

28 single sided pages, individually 2.25", and when fully extended 2ft 5.5". Note: this copy is missing its original slipcase.

the accordion is presented in an endless accordion loop

back cover

Robert Morris, Continuous Project Altered Daily, Multiples Inc, New York, 1970, ed. 1200

This cool and important accordion is the documentation of a work by Morris (1931-2018) which took place over a 22 day period at the dealer Leo Castelli's warehouse in New York. Scattered along a wall Morris brought in a cornucopia of different materials such as: earth, clay, asbestos, cotton, water, grease, plastic, felt, wood, thread waste, electric lights, photographs, and a tape recorder. Morris started the work on February 28th and over the next 22 day span he would move these materials into different combinations creating an ongoing work that never solidified into any one shape, thus eliding definition as a sculpture and moving into something much less definable and infinity variable. Visitors were invited to visit during the afternoons and Morris worked on the piece at other times. 

A pioneer and theoretician of the emerging minimal, process art, earth art and anti-form movements of the period Morris is an important historical figure. Morris would describe this piece as both "A reverse excavation, building up ruins,"(1) and "The most mythical thing I've ever done. Cain-like of dirt, a construction that goes nowhere, a constructed ruin built over an abandoned agricultural organization."(2) Underlining the importance of this work within his larger career Thomas Kren, a former curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum, remarked that "Robert Morris' entire oeuvre is a single work — 'a continuous project altered daily.'"(3)

The accordion format is the ideal medium with which to demonstrate the changes that took place during these 22 days, and it's also one that offers the viewer a chance to see in one full sweep the constantly mutating processes that defined this work or non-work.(4)

17 single sided pages, individual pages 4.5" x 12" and when fully opened 5ft 8inches.

Footnotes:

1. Notes by Morris on Wednesday March 5, 1969 in his notebook. Robert Morris Archives,

    Gardiner, NY.

2. Notes by Morris on Saturday March 15, 1969 in his notebook. Robert Morris Archives,

    Gardiner, NY.

3. Thomas Krens, “The Triumph of Entropy,” in Robert Morris. The Mind/Body Problem, ex.

    cat., 1994, p. na.

4. One text that really helped me understand the richness of this work was Katia Schneller's 

    article Continuous Project Daily Robert Morris,1969, that can be accessed  

    here: Investigations: The Expanded Field of Writing in the Works of Robert Morris -

    Continuous Project Altered Daily (1969): The Machinery of Art - ENS Éditions

 

        

back cover

David Horvitz, 435 Bridges and some shortcuts, Lab'Bel, France, 2020

cover

A postcard accordion with photographs taken by this Los Angeles based artist that document his dérives across the City of Venice as part of an art in public spaces project that took place during the Venice Bienniale of Contemporary Art from May 7th to November 25th, 2019.

Details regarding the significance of each photograph is printed on the backs of the cards and they reveal Horvitz's interactions with the citizens, shopkeepers & others as well as objects, vegetables and flowers he left in different places during his walks throughout the city. This rather dry documentation doesn't really catch for me what must have been a really fun & interesting way of experiencing the wonderful environment that is Venice, plus my google searches come up with only "...391 bridges in Venice, 403 if we include the Giudecca..."!

32 double-sided postcards, individual pages 6" x 4" and when unfolded 10ft 8".

reverse side

back cover

 

Romano Hänni, Words make the Infinite Finite (V), Basel, Switzerland, 2018, ed. 86

the accordion in its packaging

This is the second of Hänni's accordion books that I have featured on this blog and its another interesting one from this Swiss artist and typographer who's using a totally abstract palette to express his "desire to reach the 'infinite' beyond the limitations of words...". It's a curious coincidence that another Swiss illustrator and designer Warja Lavatar (1913-2007), also used a totally abstract system in her groundbreaking use of the accordion format throughout her artistic career. I consider Lavatar as one of the earliest pioneering artists to have adopted the accordion format as an integral part of her artistic practice, publishing her first accordion book in 1962. Follow this link to see another publication of Hänni's on this blog: 

accordion publications: Romano Hanni, Worte machen das Unendliche endlich (Words Make the Infinite Finite), Basel: Romani Hanni, 2008. [Edition 290]

Here's a statement from Hänni's website about this work and he addresses what he's trying to do with his purely visual works:

Although language can be explanatory, only signs and symbols evoke notions. They are capable of simultaneously incorporating all levels of human existence. Reaching down to the unfathomable depths of the soul grow their roots. Like a gentle breeze, language only touches the surface of understanding. Words make the infinite finite, signs and symbols carry off the spirit into the realms of the infinite world of being. They evoke notions, are signs of the unspeakable and are equally inexhaustible. 

Without signs or symbols, even the most modern of world views becomes impoverished. The division of soul and spirit has much to do with Gutenberg's invention. For the sake of the modern, supposedly unnecessary yet reliable and irreplaceable things are often sacrificed. Access to signs and symbols could lead to peace of mind in which all unconscious is not anxiously blocked out and avoided but embraced as a way of expanding consciousness. In this manner, the spirit could find a way out of self-isolation in which it is held captive by its unconditional worship of science and technology.  [Romano Hänni, Studio for Design]

10 single-sided pages, individually 4.75" x 3", and when fully unfolded 2' 6".

accordion with bilingual explanatory pamphlet

back cover with pamphlet

back and front covers