A new artist’s book ‘K from Karl Holmqvist (born 1964 in Västerås, lives and works in Berlin and Stockholm) explores different levels of textual interaction with art. Both as concrete poems or language ‘drawings’, where words and letters come to form pattern and repetitions somewhere between sense and non-sense, figuration and abstraction. Also in the form of longer spoken word poems intended for performance readings, again exploring the formats of repetition and variation but now with more of a rhythmic and musical structure tied to memory training techniques and oral tradition. Substantial parts of the book’s material are in fact gathered as ‘loans’ from other artists, forming something of a mini-collection of language-art practices and references from Zürich- and Berlin Dada, Futurism, Vorticism, Lettrisme and onward to more contemporary formulations from artists such as Ferdinand Kriwet or Shannon Ebner.
The book is published as a joint collaboration on the occasions of the Solstice Readings at Kunsthalle Zürich and a newly commissioned installation at Bergen Kunsthall.
‘K
Published by: Bergen Kunsthall and Kunsthalle Zürich, with JRP Ringier, 2012
Editors: Beatrix Ruf, Kunsthalle Zürich and Steinar Sekkingstad, Bergen Kunsthall
Artist: Karl Holmqvist
Texts by: Karl Holmqvist
Design: Karl Holmqvist and Joshua Shenkel
Pages: 324
ISBN: 978-3-03764-293-1
Softcover: 128×190 mm
Language: English
Price: EUR 18 / NOK 140