information lost

Sorry more paper, are you sick of paper yet?  Apparently I can't get enough.

I feel like I might have already done a post on this before but if that is the case it is totally worth showing you again. 

The work of Brian Dettmer...

I love how different they all are but the technique is really what fascinates me.  All of the pictures I have featured on this blog are from Brian Dettmer's own website where he explains his process...

In this work I begin with an existing book and seal its edges, creating an enclosed vessel full of unearthed potential. I cut into the surface of the book and dissect through it from the front. I work with knives, tweezers and surgical tools to carve one page at a time, exposing each layer while cutting around ideas and images of interest. Nothing inside the books is relocated or implanted, only removed. Images and ideas are revealed to expose alternate histories and memories. My work is a collaboration with the existing material and its past creators and the completed pieces expose new relationships of the book’s internal elements exactly where they have been since their original conception.

The more I look at the work the more I want to see him doing it, it took a while but I finally found a video that shows Brian actually working on a book.  It shows just enough to keep me still curious about how he does it.  I guess the mystery is part of the intrigue.

I would love to see this work in person but it looks like I will have to wait till it is showing in Atlanta this October, here are the current and upcoming exhibits if you are interested...

Out of Print, 9/13/12 – 11/25/12, Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, CA

40 Under 40, 7/20/2012 – 2/3/2013, Smithsonian Museum, Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Beaten & Bound, 5/26/12 – 8/26/12, Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, IN

Rock, Paper, Scissors: Process & Perception, 1/19/12 – 2/29/12, Schingoethe Art Gallery, Aurora University, Aurora, IL

Brian Dettmer, October 20, 2012 – January 5, 2013 Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA-GA), Atlanta, GA

Brian Dettmer, Selected Works, February – March 2012, Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

Brian Dettmer, Textonomy, February 2 – March 17, 2012, Toomey Tourell Fine Art, San Francisco, CA