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Rebecca Coates, Sarah crowEST, Fayen d’Evie, Carolyn Eskdale, Nathan Gray, Bianca Hester, Susan Jacobs, Helen Johnson, Katie Lee, Elizabeth Newman, Charlie Sofo, Sophie Takach, Isadora Vaughan, Aodhan Madden, Justin Clemens.
A Material Turn
Softcover, 94pp, 140 x 210 mm
BW digital print + interventions
Edition of 400 (47 + 153 + 200)
Published by 3-ply, 2015
ISBN 978-0-9873555-8-4
OUT OF PRINT
A Material Turn was conceived as an experiment in performative, dematerialising publication; a response to the provocations of New Materialism. Using economy, expansion/contraction and fragmentation/permeability as underlying principles of production, the base edition of 400 is a black and white digital print, allowing the potential for indefinite extension through print-on-demand. Designed tête-bêche style, the book has two front covers: artists’ contributions at one end, set 180 degrees from writers’ texts at the other, with the colophon grounding the centre.
Participating artists contributed: production interventions, such as Sarah crowEST’s dynamic pagination; imagery or texts for inclusion in the BW print, such as Carolyn Eskdale’s 1:1 plasticine finger pressing detail, and Charlie Sofo’s rumination on barnacle-encrusted wreckage; or post-production inserts or interventions, such as Susan Jacob’s graphite/epoxy pressing, Elizabeth Newman’s blutack blob, Katie Lee’s bookmark, Isadora Vaughan’s encased stinging nettle leaf, or Sophie Takach’s gridded perforations. The artists who elected a post-production contribution were encouraged to conceive of inserts in multiples of 50, but this was not regulated, with priority placed on each artist’s preference in light of the material conditions of their work.
Post-production contributions were attached, inserted, or enacted during a casual, performative process at Margaret Lawrence Gallery on 26 September 2015. The dematerialising edition consisted of: 47 copies with a complete set of interventions; 153 with partial interventions; and 200 with no interventions.
