follow-ed (after hokusai) is an exhibition curated by Michalis Pichler and Tom Sowden, featuring conceptual artworks, which for the most part use photography, the book form, and are somewhat ruschaish.
click here to see installation views
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By now the appropriation and paraphrasing of Ed Ruscha constitutes a genre of its own.
The first were 1968 Bruce Nauman with BURNING SMALL FIRES and 1971 "Ed Ruscha" (actually Joel Fisher) with SIX HANDS AND A CHEESE SANDWICH, with further appropriations or hommages over the decades, and in the last years it almost became fashionable, the evidence is massive.
There is actually none of the books published by Ruscha in the 60ies, which has not been paraphrased yet, be it the Gas Stations (e.g. Jeff Brouws, Toby Mussmann, Eric Tabuchi, Michalis Pichler, Anonymus, Michael Maranda), the Fires (e.g. Bruce Nauman, Luke Batten, Jonathan Monk, Yann Serandour, Thomas Galler), the Apartments (John O'Brian, Anne-Valerie Gasc, Eric Doehringer), the Parking Lots (Hermann Zschiegner, Travis Shaffer), the Swimming Pools (Jen Denike, Taro Hirano), the Real Estate Opportunities (Adam&Kate Davis, Eric Doehringer), the Royal Road Test (Tom Sachs, Simon Morris, Martha Hlady) or the Sunset Strip (J.F. Schnyder, Jonathan Monk, Derek Sullivan, Tom Sowden), even the Palm Trees (Tadej Pogocar, Eric van der Wejde), Colored People (Jonathan Monk, Tanja Lazetic) and Hard Light (Achim Riechers) have been taken up explicitly.
The assembly attempts to span a larger arc of tension, integrate Ruscha's own books and put him into a evolution line in particular with the publications of Hiroshige and Hokusai, whose titles show great parallels in rhythm and use of numeric and vague enumerations (e.g. SEVEN ASPECTS OF THE ACTOR, TWENTYEIGHT VIEWS AT MOONSHINE, FIFTYTHREE STATIONS OF THE TOKAIDO, FOUR SAMURAI FAMILIES, THIRTYSIX VIEWS OF MT FUJI, ONE HUNDRED VIEWS OF MOUNT FUJI, UNUSUAL VIEWS OF FAMOUS BRIDGES IN VARIOUS PROVINCES)
The missing link could be Yoshikazu Suzuki's GINZA HACCHO, buildings on Ginza, Tokyo, published as an accordion foldout book - in 1952, hence preceding Ruscha's THE SUNSET STRIP for 13 years- in the same street-view-style which was for very long considered essentially Ruscha.
Another missing link could be Henri Riviere's THIRTYSIX VIEWS OF EIFFEL TOWER, dating to 1902 and one of the first western explicit paraphrases of Hokusai`s THIRTYSIX VIEWS OF MOUNT FUJI, that by now has been 'redone' dozens of times, both by Japanese (even before Hokusai) and international artists.
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The show is traveling to Winchester Gallery (University of Southhampton), Gallery P74 (Ljubljana), Arnolfini (Bristol, UK) and other places.
The opening at Gallery P74 (Prušnikova 74, Ljubljana) is on Friday, March 11, 9pm
The opening at Arnolfini (Bristol) is on March 15, and also there is a crackers Photoshoot March 3-5, from 11am-5pm
On occasion of the openings different new bookworks will be launched Cover of Crackers, by the Performance Reenactment Society (PRS) at Arnolfini and SIX HANDS AND A CHEESE SANDWICH by Michalis Pichler (featuring an extensive after-ruscha bibliography) at Gallery 74.
with works from: David Abbott, Anonymous, Edgar Arceneaux, Frans Baake, Steen Bach Cristensen, Jill Ballard, Victoria Bianchetti, Doro Boehme & Eric Baskauskas, JeffreyBrouws, Stephen Bush, Corinne Carlson & Karen Henderson & Marla Hlady, Lin Charlston, Julie Cook, Bill Daniel, Natalie Daves, Cathy N. Davidson, Adam & Kate Davis, Jen Denike, Eric Doeringer, Sue Doggett, Lee Duegyoung, Frank Eye, Hans-Peter, Feldmann, Joel Fisher, Rafael Flichman, Stephen Fowler, Jan Freuchen, Thomas Galler, Anne-Valérie Gasc, Kate Glicksberg, Dejan Habicht, Sebastian Hackenschmidt & Stefan Oláh, Marcia Hafif, Mishka Henner, Taro Hirano, Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai, Dominik Hruza, Easley Stephen Jones, Rinata Kajumova & Achim Riechers, Hildegard Karnath, Gandha Key, Tanja Lažetić, Jonathan Lewis, Helena Louro, Jochen Manz, Michael Maranda, miss read, Jonathan Monk, Simon Morris, Audun Mortensen, Angel Morua, Dan Murphy, Toby Mussman, Bruce Nauman, John O’Brian, Michalis Pichler, Adrian Piper, Tadej Pogačar, Susan Porteous, Jon Rafman, Lee Really, Performance Re-enactment Society (PRS), Henri Riviere, Ed Ruscha, (solo, with Lawrence Weiner & with Mason Williams & Patrick Blackwell) Patrick, Tom Sachs, Ari Salomon, Jeremy Sanders, Joachim Schmid, Jean Frederic Schnyder, Yann Serandour, Travis Shaffer, Matthew Sleeth, Thomas Sowden, Gary Starks, EF Stevens, Derek Sullivan, Yoshikazu Suzuki, EricTabuchi, Kazuhide Takada, Erik Van der Weijde, LouisaVan Leer, Sam Venables, John Waters, Roger Zelazny, Hermann Zschiegner