Curiosity Cabinet for the Wexner Center for the Arts - Mark Dion

Apart from the interest of the classification systems used and presented by Dion in the plan for a proposed piece, one of the main things that intrigues me about this image is its own layout; separate from that which it represents. Although we see the area from above in the top illustration (a circular room, which according to the authors of Mark Dion, published by Phaidon, separates the viewers from inspecting the cabinets at close range by means of a 'protective railing') when presented like this, alongside a horizontal view of the cabinets the two vantagepoints combine to form the shape an observatory. I presume this was deliberate; it serves both to present the idea and function with its own connotations - especially when surrounded by the images of paintings and books from the Bodleian Library, and the first image, a photograph from an original Cabinet of Curiosities; a wunderkammer; a wonder-room.

This referencing of where it has come from reminds me a little of the repeated motifs in Pierre Huyghe's Billboards presented earlier. Also the presentations of art history by Andrew Lanyon and Cornelius Galle.

Details.

Dion's cabinets, organized according to Aristotle's classifications of species, when presented like this: each bookshelf encased in its own white box, remind me of the different playing cards of the myriorama, able to be rearranged at will, and still almost make sense visually. To these however, although change would visually acceptable, the entirely concept would be corrupted.

Rene Magritte - Words and Images

Originally published in La Revolution Surrealiste in 1929. Found in Conceptual Art by Tony Godfrey, Phaidon.

I don't know how these were originally presented; all that the book says is that the top image is a detail and the words are translated from the French. Given that the words are not only those that appear in the images I would be intrigued to see how they were written, whether printed or handwritten. I wonder how the presentation and scale in comparison to the originals varies; its seems to impossible to tell with the reproduction of these line drawings - information that might help, that you might find in other mediums in unavailable. The lines however, are very fine; it seems likely they have been reduced. Still the meaning is still clear on not dependant on its scale - their simplicity and minimal information makes them more versatile and apt to display in a book. This seems very different from the experience of viewing a painting, for example, via the mediation of printing.

Decorator Maligin - from an Album by Ilya Kabakov

Detail.

In the introduction to Kabakov's albums in a book on him the author describes his 'albums' as words that sit in no particular genre, they 'belong in a space between a few types of art . . . from literature (primarily Russian), albums have taken narrative, plot, the existence of a hero, and most importantly, the direct inclusion of another person's text* or that written by the author . . . ' One stated element from 'fine arts' is 'this genre has the ability to withstand made on works of that type: to hold attention on itself, to be an object of contemplation, to possess appropriate compositional features.' He continues after a moment: ' From cinema, the album takes the use of connections between frames . . .' and ' theatre - not a modern theatre where the action takes place in the dark so that the attention of the viewer can be be even more firmly held, but rather an old theatre on a square, where in full light the viewer is unrestrained in his watching of the action and simultaneously in his evaluation of it.'

Kabakov's Albums are presented on music stands, each drawing or scrap takes a separate page, each is the same size. When presented, always only to small groups of people at a time, the viewers are able to handle them, inspecting at their own speed, in the preferred and chosen order.

Quotes and images from Ilya Kabakov, The Man Who Never Threw Anything Away, Amei Wallach, Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1996.

*This comment reminds me of a couple of books, where the subject's are authors or editors themselves; Satre's Nausea, and Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov.

Mathmatical Gorsky - from an Album by Ilya Kabakov

Detail.

Mark Dion - Scala Naturae

'Scala Naturae (1994), was a straightfaced subversion of Aristotle's attempt to classify life according to a hierachical system. . . . The receding steps begin with man's creationsm, climbing past fungi, fruits and vegetables, corals, butterflies, and a stuffed cat and duck and concluding with a bust of the classical scholar.'

Text from Mark Dion, Liza Corrin, Miwon Know, Norman Bryson, Phaidon.

Exert - page 122 from Circular Walks around Rowley Hall by Andrew Lanyon

Before reading the applied narrative in the text the image seems to speak of the maliability of photography, with its presentation of a seemingly true occurance; presentation of fact. It appears seemless, and true, one frame, one shot, although also with an archaic feeling grainy texture which might hide all maner of things. On closer inspection the documentation seems to be of the same object; it is only when we see them in parellel do we reasise the significance of its size of printing.
The two objects are aligned to the right, in direct comparision to each other, another element which tells of the relationship between the two items; one which would exist even if they were different objects, and different from each other; it applies an insinuated contrast in the scale, and space filled by one thing, as opposed to another.
When these items then become instruments used for measurement, it then questions firstly their function; as they are available via photography they can be rendered at any size. In the book, the inches in either ruler are not in 1:1 radio with the real measurement, or true size of either object: it is impossible to tell whether they were made this way or photography; they may really be odd sized rulers.
With text the two image/one image becomes part of a larger narrative; Lanyon's book tells the histories of three charccters who make bizarre experiments, each in they own interests and subjectjective views of life. In ther books they become defined by their own indifidual activities and how they cope with each others.
The first line on page 123, after the above image, begins to read in contrast: 'Vera admits there did actually come a time when she found herself agreeing with Walter that every form of art is dangerous, one of many from her subconscious . . .' Another play on the believeability, and truth of sight of the image presented by the author/artist, it seems to reveal the conquest of this image.
The manipulated scale also reminds me of the Marcel Broodthaers piece earlier.

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.

Haim Steinbach - Untitled (Hobby Horse, Cookie Jar)