The current selection of publications with works by eight different artists has been curated by The II Platform over the course of the last two months. Each publication is the result of different editorial and design, based on each project’s requirements as well as the artist’s perspective and approach. The publications include artists who have previously collaborated with the Platform and participants from upcoming projects. The collection will be exhibited in Bongah Art Book Fair in Tehran this November.
Initiated in 2018, Bon-gah Art Book fair is an annual three-day event of artists’ publication. The third edition of BABF will take place in November 2020 in Tehran. Including a wide range of artists and collectives, curators, publishers, institutions, galleries, periodicals, zines and printed ephemera, the event is free and open to the public. With a commitment to diversity and representation, the fair will serve as a meeting place for an extended community of publishers, artists and book enthusiasts, as well as a site for dialogue and exchange around all facets of arts publishing. Bon-gah is an artist-run platform and an independent publisher.
Endoscopy Eleni Petridou 50 Editions+10 HC ︎Endoscopy is one of Eleni's biggest series of works that is investigating the balance between organic and manufactured. Through a number of hybrid objects appearing to be in a state of decaying and visually resembling internal organs of the human body, the artist tries to bring to light the mysterious biochemical procedures taking place underneath our skin. This publication documents Eleni's installation from 2018 were the works composed not only a visual but also a multisensory environment both inviting and challenging the visitor to be immersed in a poignant introspection of one ’s inner self.
Cotton Balls & Sweet Dreams Fatemeh Kazemi 50 Editions+10 HC ︎Cotton Balls & Sweet Dreams explores the intimate memories from the artist’s childhood from the perspective of a shattered dream. The photos are a selection of images which she collected on her phone and from family photo albums. These images remind her of family, forbidden loves, uneatable things, a stranger's touch and stories with a hint of a scent.
Ultramarine Chloe Hurst 50 Editions+10 HC ︎"Ultramarine" is an observation of the colour blue, with emphasis on the shade Ultramarine, originating from the Latin ultramarinus meaning “beyond the sea”.The representational images of earth and sea are compositionally repeated and layered meant to gather information based on color rather than any other subject matter. Ultramarine acts as a visual dialogue between the artist and the viewer and with current communication only being viable via technology, it behaves as an element of interrupted perception.
You were the Statue of Silence Shahrzad Jahan 50 Editions+10 HC ︎“You were the Statue of Silence” is dedicated to the artist’s grandmother who passed away in summer 2019 after years of going through Alzheimer’s. The artist tries to depict memory pieces of her in writing, as she also tries to simulate how Alzheimer’s affects visual memory and how this indescribable experience articulates itself in image. This process is solely being generated from the memory of the artist herself and their relationship shaped over the years. As human relationships get defined with language, consciousness, and memory the question Shahrzad is asking is Where do relationships sit when all of these terms are lost?
Faceless Mila Fan 50 Editions+10 HC ︎Faceless is a collection of collages made by Mila Fan from 2018 to 2020. The works play around ideas of identity, portrait, and humor. The paper chosen for this publication has a translucent quality which allows elements of one page to transfer onto, or into, another - reflecting the process of collage itself. The texts used in the collages are taken from a local newspaper in Northwest China, in which the news is almost always positive and quixotic. Presented alongside the collaged images, leads to often humorous juxtapositions.
Work in Progress: A Series of Participatory Walks Mélika Hashemi 50 Editions+10 HC ︎“Work in Progress” is a publication that documents a series of five participatory walks at the main campus of the University of Waterloo. The participants were gathered through the Waterloo Region alternative art/community platform, PotLuck. This series of walks was an attempt and a vehicle in which the artist brought ideas of intersectionality through the curriculum beyond institutional walls.
Virtual/Individual Identity Shokoufeh Eftekhar 50 Editions+10 HC
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After Shokufeh moved to Istanbul where she rented a furnished house she found a plastic bag with documents, photos, and religious books. The first thing she looked at was her photo, a woman from Cameroon with a great smile on her face posing in front of the camera. Behind the picture, there was written 30.09.08. The publication is based on the letter exchange between the artist and the mysterious Cameroon lady. She called her O.D. and she starts writing to her about the things on her mind and the journey that started with the artist finding her belongings. In the publication, Shokufeh included some of her handwritings and photos, screenshots of what she searched about her, and locations related to her. The artist also staged a self-portrait which showed the moment she found the documents and she quoted “I felt like the way the coat shows my body is the same as how the documents show O.D’s existence to me.”
Inertia Weishan&Shahrzad 50 Editions+10 HC ︎
This is a collaborative piece between Weishan and Shahrzad Jahan. It started from a series of drawings made by Weishan and In response, Shahrzad composites them with a series of photos of her own. The publication was the experimental result of the artists trying to interrupt the Inertia of their individual pieces by combining the two aesthetics together. The overlapping and blent of their works were meant to create an energy which transfigures constantly.
