We are all learning to swim under water
For me, being submerged in water is something that makes me feel so extremely calm and at peace, especially when my mind is clouded with scattered thoughts and feelings of anxiety and panic. I swim at least once a week, as I feel it really cleanses my head and sets me up well to avoid these recurring anxious states. From carrying out some research in the library, I found an exhibition catalogue titled 'swimming underwater' from an exhibition with the Goldsmiths Gallery in 1990. This catalogue is put together using recycled paper and 'industrial discards' which have been overprinted. The contrast between different paper types and weights gives the book an amazing tactility. These 'overprinted' sections have, in some cases, been printed over 5/6 times, giving a fascinating texture to the paper and asking you to look further and figure out the layering.
I was especially intrigued by this catalogue as the first writing piece is titled Design: Art's anxiety. The references to water and swimming are great - referencing Baudrillard and Walter Benjamin in discussions of objects, capitalism and British popular culture. The writer states critical writers are 'swimming under Walter.'
Today, in The World of The Surplus Income we can only be happy in everyday life when we fill it with manufactured objects.
I love the 'messy but neat' nature of the content in this book and the variety of paper stocks. As the imagery is from repurposed waste paper it's interesting to see these ambiguous images put next to heavily conceptual
Kommentare