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Eugene Hön

Johannesburg

READ PEEP REAP (2014)

Type of book work: Unique sculptural book installation
Dimensions: 1500 x 1000 x 720
Media: Framed Ballpoint pen Drawing & various mixed media

Artist's / designer's statements

Consisting of three separate components, Read Peep Reap could be understood as an artist's book installation that includes a drawing of an iris, a sculptural book and a 'visual label'.

Its first component, a drawing, is an interpretation of Albrecht Dürer's Iris Troiana (1508), which is rendered in blue, red and pink ballpoint pen ink and depicts a bruised flower. The iris also makes reference to the 1970s feminism movement as it features in Judy Chicago's work and is associated with her endeavours to elevate "craft" to the status of "art". My ballpoint drawing is set behind glass in a customized frame to accommodate an operational set of blinds, and fades with exposure to direct light: drawing the blinds and exposing the ballpoint rendering thus causes it to fade away, an act suggestive of the death of the handmade and crafts in a digital age. The viewer has the choice to peep though the blinds at the drawing or operate the mechanism to expose the entire work.

The second object, the "Visual Label", consists of a series of digital prints on acid free paper, folded concertina style as a sequential explication. It includes mind maps and reference material, including photocopies of the watercolour and ink drawing by Dürer. Towards its end is printed a series of elaborate complex digitally enhanced floral patterns exploring reflection symmetry which Graphic Design staff member, Christa Van Zyl, produced from the drawing.

The final component takes the form and shape of a sculptural book set between two transparent extruded plastic bookends. The spine is handcrafted and bound in dark brown leather. The title "read peep reap" (a Dewey decimal classification number) and my name as the artist/author are embossed and gilded in gold leaf. The individual pages are dye-cut into shapes of hundreds of blinds which are strung together with thin cotton ropes, simulating the mechanism of a set of blinds while also emulating the thread used to stich the individual pages together in the craft of bookbinding. The digitally printed and dye-cut pages allude to the codex of a book, a title page, preliminaries, a colophon, frontispiece, dedication and epigraph.

In her introduction to Navigating the BookScape: Artists' books and the Digital Interface, Robyn Sassen (2006) asks: "is the Artist's book about reading, about looking, about thinking, or about all three?" The title of the installation, read peep reap, prompts the viewer to consider the death of crafts and the handmade in a digital age. Celebrating the art of drawing and fine craftsmanship in bookbinding, it pays homage to the ultimate 'artisan', Dürer, who was not only a painter, printmaker and engraver but also a mathematician and theorist. And, to use the words of Sassen (2006) in regard to artists' books, it is about my "sense of wonder and exploration in creating an interactive thing that brings the audience as a collaborative participant in the experience of the work".

Reference
Sassen, Robyn. 2006. Introduction. In Navigating the Bookscape: Artists' Books and the Digital Interface, edited by David Paton.
Online publication. www.theartistsbook.org.za/view.asp?pg=exhibitions&ex=ex2_001









Artist / Academic / Curator

Education

2004 EDP USB (University of Stellenbosch)
1986 MFA. (Ceramic Sculpture), University of Cape Town
1983 BAFA (Ceramic Sculpture), University of Cape Town
1976 Matric Hoërskool Tygerberg

Awards

2010 Fellow, in recognition of valuable contributions to ceramics and to Ceramics Southern Africa.
2009 Clay Pot Award, Ceramics SA Regional Awards exhibition.
1998 Merit Award, International Ceramics Biennale Sandton Civic Art Gallery.

Exhibitions

2016 Ceramics SA Biennale, University of Johannesburg Art Gallery. Manufraction; Ceramic shard as vessel. Participating artist and curator.
2014 Group Exhibition. Read, Peep Reap, The Book Arts: Artist's Books Exhibition, Art on Paper. Stanley 44.
2014 TAIWAN Ceramics Biennale, New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum. …..and the ship sails on… Ceramic Installation with digital projection of ballpoint pen renderings. Digital materialities section.
2012 Solo Exhibition, launch of DVD titled,….and the ship sails on… and applied works of art and design. Elegance Jewellers, Melrose Arch.
2011 Collaborations/articulations, staff exhibition at FADA Gallery UJ, Ceramic installation with projected animation titled, and the ship sails on…

Collections

Corobrik Collection, South African National Gallery, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Durban Art Gallery, TWR Permanent Collection, Sandton Civic Art Gallery, Constitutional Court of South Africa. Altech collection and numerous private collections in South Africa, New York, Spain, London and Paris.



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