Marcel Broodthaers - A Voyage on North Sea + The Conquest of Space: Atlas for the use of Artists and the Military

Detail: A Voyage on the North Sea.

Shown above is a detail of A Voyage on the North Sea, a book which contains reproductions of a Victorian amateur painting of a fishing boat interspersed with photographs black and white photographs. Most pages contain four details; often repeated enlarged sections of parts of the painting, zoomed in as if intent on allowing close inspection. The repetition and sequence of these images is reminiscent of film editing: the camera travels in an out of the scene, as if in a shot of a moving boat traveling by the standpoint. The artist actually also made a four-minute film - it exists as an alternative version, which lasts four minutes. It, however is organised by page numbers.

The second image in the first image, as they are presented in Conceptual art by Tony Godfrey, is a miniature book, a mickey take, a little laugh at representation: much is revealed in its title: The Conquest of Space: Atlas for the use of Artists and the Military. It contains eight images of eight countries, all produced in silhouette, and scaled to be the exact same size. It is pocketable, seemingly very handy yet utterly useless. It size seems to make it an object for collection, like a little trinket, for enjoyment not use.

The two pieces are not the same size, the yacht book is actually more alike the size of a 'normal one' which presents information in a seemingly useful way; the enlargements also appear to present the painting for inspection; not as a moving shot, but for what it actually is.