Project Description
Book Publishing
A book, 252 pp, hardcover,
printed in Hong Kong
ISBN 978-988-7635-1-8
Preoccupations: Things Artists Do Anyway is a bookwork that explores the preoccupations of artists when they are not making art. It is conceived, compiled and edited by artists Cornelia Erdmann and Michael Lee Hong Hwee, jointly published by 泥人laiyanPROJECTS and Studio Bibliotheque.
By definition, a ‘preoccupation’ is a state, condition, idea, feeling, object, person, place, activity or event on which a person expends extended time and energy, whether purposefully or helplessly. It may be a leisure activity that eases the tedium of work, a collection of things that one cannot stop expanding, a dream that one has frequently, a person to whom one is powerlessly connected, a fetish object that titillates one’s sexual desires, or a obsessive-compulsive disorder beyond control. Each artist has a spread in the book to share on a preoccupation with text and image. This book project thus provides a platform for artists to reflect on and articulate things they do in their lives anyway, that is, without prompting from anyone or against all odds. The book is an archive of ‘mini-autobiographies’ that engage existing discussions on identity politics, auto/biographical criticism, relational aesthetics, creativity studies, leisure studies, book art, and reception studies. By offering a glimpse of the private lives of artists, this book provides insights to their art.
In the book are 100 contributions by 111 international artists from the visual, literary and performing arts, including the applied arts of film, design and architecture. The writing genres include essay, poetry, diary entry, manifesto, truism, experimental narratives, instructions, letters. The images are in the various formats of photographs, sketches, illustrations, graphics, and computer screen shots.
Book launch is on Saturday, 19 July 2008, 3 –4.30pm, at Kubrick Bookshop Cafe.
The book project is exhibited at the Post Museum as part of the outreach programme of the Singapore Biennale 08
PDFs for download (content):
Preface, Cornelia Erdmann
Introduction, Michael Lee Hong Hwee
Selected contributions
PDFs to download (press):
SCMP 27/7/08 Review
HK Magazine 15/8/08 Interview
HK Magazine 15/8/08 Review
Interview (audio) on Radio 3, RTHK, 01/09/08
* picuters taken by han| yesterday was great.
