This artist’s book, entitled ‘Word Launder’, is a durational artwork responding both to language and to site that engages ideas around value and exchange.
The artwork was made in 2014 at Cape Town’s Platteklip washhouse, an historical place where slave washerwomen used to do the laundry in colonial times - it is a site of hard labour but also of socialising, according to archaeological excavations. It was created in response, and parallel, to closed academic discussions by urbanists around ‘Vernaculars of Urban Multiplicities’. These discussions were hosted by African Centre for Cities and Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity following on from a 2012 engagement around public space and diversity.
Each page (or chapter) records a key word picked up from participant speakers in turn and run through Google analytics for its frequency in media reports; this graph is plotted out across pages of a wage register coded for farm labour, with work ‘in kind’ factored into its columns. The chosen word itself is then written out ad nauseum against this graph for as long as the speaker holds the floor. Headline examples from media reports using the word are randomly inserted into this script. Statistics about the word are written up to the right, including geographical dispersions.
The work indicates the ineffable nature of the content and the difficulty of adequately capturing it together with the slipperiness of language in a broader sense, along with the intent of the speakers to fathom new ground and find appropriate signifiers. It also aims to subvert an indentured past and the labour-intensive form is a part of that effort. The resulting artist’s book is itself a work of performative labour. It comprises nine chapters plus a preface.
Word Launder was exhibited on a group exhibition ‘Booknesses’, at FADA gallery at University of Johannesburg opening on 24 March 2017. Visit: Youtube video of Booknesses colloquium on artists’s books and exhibition. A digital catalogue is available: Artists’ Books in South Africa.
Artists’ books are a genre of artwork that engage with the idea of a book in form or concept and can be unique or created in an edition.
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Word Launder: Preface (2014)Artist’s book (detail)
Preface: Multiplicity
Ink, graphite, beeswax, glue, highlighter, and interest over time
Book dimensions: 81cm (l) x 29.5cm (h) x 1cm (d)
Word Launder: Evictions (2014)Artist’s book (detail)
Chapter 1: Evictions
Ink, graphite, beeswax, glue, highlighter, and interest over time
Book dimensions: 81cm (l) x 29.5cm (h) x 1cm (d)
World Launder: Access (2014)Artist’s book (detail)
Chapter 2: Access
Ink, graphite, beeswax, glue, highlighter, and interest over time
Book dimensions: 81cm (l) x 29.5cm (h) x 1cm (d)
Word Launder: Invisibility (2014)Artist’s book (detail)
Chapter 3: Invisibility
Ink, graphite, beeswax, glue, highlighter, and interest over time
Book dimensions: 81cm (l) x 29.5cm (h) x 1cm (d)
Word Launder: Creole (2014)Artist’s book (detail)
Chapter 4: Creole
Ink, graphite, beeswax, glue, highlighter, and interest over time
Book dimensions: 81cm (l) x 29.5cm (h) x 1cm (d)
Word Launder: Inequality (2014)Artist’s book (detail)
Chapter 5: Inequality
Ink, graphite, beeswax, glue, highlighter, and interest over time
Book dimensions: 81cm (l) x 29.5cm (h) x 1cm (d)
Word Launder: RhythmsArtist’s book (detail)
Chapter 6: Rhythms
Ink, graphite, beeswax, glue, highlighter, and interest over time
Book dimensions: 81cm (l) x 29.5cm (h) x 1cm (d)
Word Launder: Detachment (2014)Artist’s book (detail)
Chapter &: Detachment
Ink, graphite, beeswax, glue, highlighter, and interest over time
Book dimensions: 81cm (l) x 29.5cm (h) x 1cm (d)
Word Launder: Sensorium (2014)Artist’s book (detail)
Chapter 8: Sensorium
Ink, graphite, beeswax, glue, highlighter, and interest over time
Book dimensions: 81cm (l) x 29.5cm (h) x 1cm (d)
Word Launder: Agency (2014)Artist’s book (detail)
Chapter 9: Agency
Ink, graphite, beeswax, glue, highlighter, and interest over time
Book dimensions: 81cm (l) x 29.5cm (h) x 1cm (d)
