James Allen: Anesidora at Kittredge Gallery
I was on the University of Puget sound campus and stopped in at the Kittredge Gallery recently. James Allen was showing his "Book Excavation" sculptures. These are finely crafted objects which highlight certain images from certain pages of a book. The rest of the pages are carved away leaving an interesting result. Worth a trip.
Here is an explanation from his website:
Each Book Excavation begins by cutting a hole in the cover of a book with a scalpel or x-acto blade. I cut my way through the pages selectively keeping fragments of images and words to create a composition using the content of the book as it emerges. In this way a sculptural relief emerges as I carve my way though the pages. The composition emerges intuitively. As I cut I consider both narrative and compositional dynamics to create a new vision of the book's content. I enjoy how these Excavations turn the linear format of a book into a flat window through which to observe many pages at once.
