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| Image © Zabludowicz Collection/Toby Ziegler |
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| Image © Zabludowicz Collection/Toby Ziegler |
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| Image © Zabludowicz Collection/Toby Ziegler |
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| Image © Zabludowicz Collection/Toby Ziegler |
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| Image © Zabludowicz Collection/Toby Ziegler |
While we were out at Sarvisalo, quite a few of the Zabludowicz Collection's publications were spread about various locations. They're impressive in quality, integrity and design and it's lovely to see books produced with a decent budget from time to time, reflecting the philosophy of the artist or work in some way. My particular favourite was this one The Alienation of Objects by Toby Ziegler, which was produced on the occasion of the exhibition of his commissioned piece at the London branch of the Zabludowicz Collection.
I guess it struck a bit of a chord with what I'm trying to trying to produce with my Paper Museum newspapers. A publication that doesn't reproduce images of your work, but which presents a little of some of the thinking and inspiration behind the pieces themselves. Whilst intermingling it with texts that aren't just art historical / academic garble… In this case, Ziegler presents images that relate to his practice. Some thought provoking narrative texts by Elizabeth Johnson are interwoven amongst the pictures and at the end an index of images is included alongside artist's notes.
An example of EJ's text…
He develops a disregard for the objects around him – Silly lamp for believing it is on the countertop. Ridiculous chair for concurring to hold me up. Lamp and chair stare back at him blankly. He forgets, he agreed to all this, he gave consent for each second to murder the last.
And from the Notes on Images section, for the two penultimate images above:
p.119 'The meaning of fasten, attach, make firm, is first recorded about 1386, that of establish, settle, assign, is first recorded in the form of fixed (before 1500), which evolved into adjust, arrange, put in order (1663, Samuel Pepys' Diary), and mend or repair (1737, in American English). The sense of tamper with (a jury, etc.), is first found in American English, in 1790.' Ed. Barnhart R. K. 1988. Chambers Dictionary of Etymology. p.386.
And:
p.123 'Perception of an object costs/Precise the Object's loss–' Dickinson, E. [p.1071]. The underside of a chair that Emily Dickinson may have used at the writing table in her bedchamber.Perhaps, ultimately, I prefer the book and its philosophy to Ziegler's actual works… certainly though, the book helps you apreciate the sculptural works on a level beyond just that of aesthetics. Compared to if I hadn't read the book at all, I feel like I really know something about Ziegler's work. This seems to me to be no bad thing. It uplifts and reiterates what I knew right at the beginning: that making the editions of The Paper Museum is worthwhile.
