deankessmann

Cover to Cover

archival pigment prints, various sizes, 2004
edition of 10 with 2 AP (small prints: image 22 inches long x various heights, paper 24 inches long x various heights)
edition of 3 with 1 AP (medium prints: image 46 inches long x various heights, paper 48 inches long x various heights)
edition 1/1 with 1 AP (large prints: image 70 inches long x various heights, paper 72 inches long x various heights)

archival pigment prints, various sizes, 2004
edition of 10 with 2 AP
(small prints: image 22 inches long x various heights, paper 24 inches long x various heights)
edition of 3 with 1 AP
(medium prints: image 46 inches long x various heights, paper 48 inches long x various heights)
edition 1/1 with 1 AP
(large prints: image 70 inches long x various heights, paper 72 inches long x various heights)

Read a short description of this project

Cover to Cover

Some people pore over novels, I tear through art magazines—reading them from cover to cover when time permits, but often simply skimming the text for names, dates, titles, and of course, looking at the pictures. For this project, these seemingly static objects turned out to be more than reference material; they became the raw material for new and unexpected transformations. Through an unconscious manipulation of magazines—rolling them into tubes in moments of boredom, nervousness, or for the practical purpose of carrying them—I noticed, and then became intrigued by the juxtaposition of shapes, the accidentally discovered spectrums of color. These austere linear abstractions are the unintended consequence of carefully designed documents, the byproduct of a painstakingly controlled internal organization. Each print in this exhibition represents an entire magazine presented in its entirety, and at the same time, completely fractured and totally partial. Each barcode-like, minimal band of veiled information is removed from its original context; it is enlarged, magnifying the dot pattern from the printing press, microscopic details of contemporary art and advertising. They are appropriations of reproductions of reproductions. Ultimately these images are about the re-presentation of bound reproductions of contemporary art and culture. The fortuitous patterns in these prints are messages initially controlled by the medium; meanings further conflated and conflicted though my alteration, translation, and presentation.