AAOUE
Artist book, 276 pages, 9.3″/ 12.4″ inch | 22/28 cm, edition of 500. Published by Sternthal Books Ltd. 2016
An essay by Jessica Eisenthal and a conversation with Maud Jacquin.
AAOUE a re-publication, 276 drawings – erased offset sheets from a deconstruction of The Burghley Collection: a catalogue showcasing a collection of antique Oriental porcelains from 17th century Japan.
The original catalogue manifests early points of contact between the Orient and the Occident and attest to a cross-cultural fertilization in the pre-industrial era that can be read into their decoration. ‘a politic of the decorative,’ the porcelains were intended for Western export, catering to Western taste for the Oriental. The shape of the ceramics often followed European designs, while the painted decorations had the charge of representing the object’s Eastern origin.
The porcelains in the collection signify exchange and cultural hybridity, but they also speak of the exoticization of the other, and that implies issues of domination and power. This complexity is partly what led me to erase them. The gesture of effacement revisits the chosen ‘cultural object’ through its printed form, making it appear and disappear simultaneously, and eventually turning it into a new image. It is an operation that marks and highlights as much as it erases. The erasing gesture is a way of doubting, or denying what is there.
