A plus A Slovenian Exhibition Centre
San Marco 3073
30124 Venice, Italy
Reproduction
From San Francisco to Venice: Polaroids and Independent Publishers
Wednesady, June 20 at 7pm
Wednesday, June 20 at 7pm at A plus A Slovenian Exhibition Centre the American photographer Amanda Marsalis will present her artist book Reproduction published by the Venetian independent publishing house Automatic Books.
For the occasion some of her breathtaking Polaroid pictures will be on display until June 22. Automatic Books will take care of the set up of the exhibition, following a precise curatorial project.
After the Berliner Ignacio Uriarte and his artist book Six Hundred Fifty, published by Automatic Book and presented at A plus A Slovenian Exhibition Centre last May, it’s time for the American photographer Amanda Marsalis with her Polaroid pictures reproduced in a 102 pages book made with images and flowers in a blue and red risographic print. As the other books published by Automatic Books and dedicated to the work of artists and designers, also Reproduction has been printed in limited edition and realized with old style technologies.
Amanda Marsalis comes from Los Angeles, California, and has established a very successful commercial photography career, collaborating with some important magazines such as Vogue, GQ, Monocle and The Wall Street Journal. Her work exhibits a superior command of the use of light and her portraits intimately tell a story you want to listen to. Together with traditional photographic techniques, she also works with Polaroid. She says about herself: “I went from high school to art school to life as a photographer. I often joke that it is the only skill I have since it sometimes feels like the only thing I have ever done”.
Reproduction is a very intimate work, a real artist book that presents her dreamy images, shot with the end of her Polaroid stock. This give the work a sense there is even something more fragile in them than just the delicate flowers, as it was the end of an era, the end of love. The project is a study of femininity, solitude and intimacy, a sort of meditation on a mental state that comes after examining the same thing over and over. It’s also a collaboration between the photographers and Automatic Book, since the method of printing the book comes with the title.
“Reproduction for me is 3 things: The purpose of a flower, the way the book is being printed, and a woman’s fertility/sexuality. Myself being the woman. I feel in a tradition of classic photographers shooting still lives as an exercise in image making and self examination”.
This book presentation is part of a larger project related to independent publishing houses A plus A is carrying on and intends to develop in the coming months. After hosting the Berlin artist Ignacio Uriarte and the American photographer Amanda Marsalis, A plus A will welcomes back Automatic Books for a cycle of conferences related to the independent publishing industry and the concept of artist’s book, a true work of art born from the collaboration between artists and the publishers, in a constant dialogue and exchange.
