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On Writing and Difference - Jacques Derrida

Item date(s): 2015

Fabian Saptouw


Pages: Variable
Edition: Unique

Type: Conceptual book object
Theme(s): Process art; materiality; the tension between text-image; history of the printed word

Place publication: Cape Town
Publisher: The artist
Exhibition 2017

Reference note:
Material: Steadler HB Pencils; Monami erasers; A4 examination pads

This work is a transcription of the entire textual content of `On Writing and Difference`. The transcriptions of the text are erased and the residue presented as the `book`.

My artistic output is linked to four research topics; process art, materiality, the tension between text-image and the history of the printed word. These ideas are engaged in a variety media, often through a series of time and labour-intense production processes.

The taxing nature of the production processes are key because it defines the overall conceptual trajectory of each project. The projects often engage a product or a process with a level of intensity that is alien to its manufactured purpose. The logic of these decisions are embedded in the historical roots of the Process Art movement.

This artistic movement emphasized process as integral to artistic practice and the nuanced investigation of the materiality of the art-object. The artists actually regarded the process as more important than the artwork. Other key issues tackled by the artists of the movement was an urge to render that production process transparent in the mind of the viewer, shifting away from the idea of the artwork as a collectable commodity and the utilization of experimental materials and processes to investigate conceptual concerns. There has been a contemporary resurgence of interest in the conceptual value of process and process-based production in art. This is something evident in the recent number of texts, craft fairs, conferences and the rise to fame of various artists that employ time and labour-intense processes.



Exhibition notes:
‘Booknesses: Contemporary South African Artist's Books’.

FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg.

Curated by David Paton and Eugene Hon.

24 March - 5 May 2017



Ref: DP/17020









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