look inside

SPBH BOOK CLUB VOL IV

by Mariah Robertson

Photographs: Mariah Robertson

Publisher: selfpublished SPBH

40 pages

Pictures: 20

Year: 2013

Price: 69.90 €

Comments: Hardcover, Leporello Binding, HandMade, 15 x 20cm, Edition of 500, every cover is different.

Mariah Robertson is an alchemist. Her experimental approach to making art has seen images spill from the restrictions of the frame and reach across walls and floors. In SPBH Book Club Vol IV, we are presented with the results of Robertson’s time in the immersive space of the darkroom - freeing herself from the classic conventions of photographic practice, she works intuitively with photograms, irregular chemical reactions, solarizations and collage to paint the surface of the photograph and push the magical element of the medium to it’s very limits. Washed out glimpses of palm trees and beach snaps give a fleeting sense of place, hinting at a time long since past, or an unnamed paradise perhaps.

SPBH Book Club Vol IV offers, for the first time, the chance to admire and own one of Robertson’s beautiful and highly collectable photographic rolls. The roll, which is 30 meters long, is entitled 154, and was originally created in 2010. The book is leporello bound allowing the owner of the book to enjoy the piece in its entirety, or look at it classically page by page. The final element of the book is its cover. Reproducing the roll by printing it onto 40-metres of exquisite silk fabric, individual pieces have been cut out to become the covers of the books, meaning that each person will receive a completely unique, different piece of the grand puzzle.

Mariah Robertson is a photographer living and working in Brooklyn, New York, whose work likes to poke at the limits of a system. She has exhibited at a number of international institutions including MoMA in NYC, The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, and The Saatchi Gallery in London.

more books tagged »American« | >> see all