Binneste Buite/Inside Out – The Book as Art Museum; an exploration of Time and Space

ARTIST STATEMENT

BETTIE COETZEE LAMBRECHT

This photographic series is an expression of the concept Young, and by implication, Time. Specifically cosmic time in which past and present, young and old, new and old, blends with space, movement and stagnancy. The series of composite photographic images (more than one photo superimposed upon another) reflects the interior of the Zeitz MOCAA (Museum of Contemporary Art Africa), in Cape Town combined with images of street architecture in the Bo-Kaap, seeds, desert sand and eroded rock structures from elsewhere in the world. All simultaneously present in the here and now as well as in time past.

Seven large images printed on archival museum quality German Etching and Watercolour Hahnemuehle paper as well as two Artist’s Books – the one, a three dimensional installation referring to museum architecture and mounted on a circular turning plinth. The other, in the conventional codex format, blends the concept of the simultaneous existence of Inside and Outside. Its cover shaped from cement, mounted on concrete circular stands. The book’s title page shows a tarred road. From here the journey leads inwards through a series of eleven images plexi-mounted and installed in perspex containers. This refers to both the pages of a book and the walls of a museum. Three ‘chapters’ or ‘exhibition rooms’ present themselves as the viewer ‘pages’ or ‘walks’ through the ‘book’ or ‘rooms’.

Metaphorically, the viewer moves through space and time and experiences at once aspects of memory that become alive as the senses are aroused. This interaction between viewer and artwork/book/museum alludes to the creative process that happens within the viewer.

Experiencing an art work, by entering the inside from outside and vice versa, is an act of creating. The process entails more than our physical experience through the senses. When the viewer really enters the consciousness of the artwork, something happens that is almost impossible to explain.

The closest I can come in describing this process, is to compare it to the sprouting of a seed. The seed that the artwork has planted into the viewer. Feelings and ideas inspired or triggered by the artwork is another form of birth.

THE ARTIST’S BOOK – DEFINITION

The exploration of Time, the blending of past and present, of space and movement, is a continuation of a visual project since 2012. The simultaneous experience of Then and Now, Inside and Out, is currently presented as composites, i.e. the overlaying of different photographs onto each other. These are displayed on the wall as framed art works handprinted on archival paper, as well as in the format of an Artist’s Book. This is not to be confused with a commercially produced photobook, where the main drive by the publisher /editor is commercial. The AB by contrast has concept and process as its main focus, coupled with the intention of blending format, material, layout, text and visuals with the concept in a meaningful whole. The AB can include both the conventional codex format and other imaginative designs, such as the sculptural or installation variation.

ARTIST BOOKS

INSTALLATION – book format

Comprises of 12 photographic images Inket-printed on Hahnemuele Watercolour paper, protected in sheets of perspex. These ‘book pages/walls’ are installed upright on a rotating base. The rotating table is placed on a concrete cylindrical base made up of six industrial pipes paying homage to the architecture of the ZeitzMOCAA.

CODEX book format

Binneste Buite/Inside Out Codex book is a 1/1 edition. Epson UltraChrome Ink on Innova Smooth Cotton High White 215 gsm paper. Casebound with a cement block as part to the cover, by Art Binder, Heléne van Aswegen.

Signed by the artist: BettieCL 2019

PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS for sale in LIMITED EDITION of 3 Paper sizes 938 x 656mm and 887 X 656mm – Hahnemeuhle German Etching Paper – Hahnemeule Watercolour Paper