Unfolding Images

Accordion Books by Laura Holland

Wednesday, February 13 - Wednesday, March 12 2008

UNFOLDING IMAGES
Accordion Books by Laura Holland
Artist Statement
Intriguing juxtapositions emerge when the formerly elegant, often dilapidated, history-laden architecture of Eastern Europe crushes up against the hustle, rush, and bustle of life today. Sometimes these buildings reel out of the collision covered in graffiti and stencil art; other times they are lovingly restored or elegantly remodeled; still other times they are razed to the ground and replaced by a completely new structure. In the fragments of these old buildings, I look for the eloquent details that, piece by piece, combine to convey some vital sense of the larger scene.
To suggest my impression of cultures colliding, I layered photographs taken in East Berlin between 1987 and 2006, in a series of photomontages. Next, I bundled images of old and new buildings stretching along one street in Berlin, to make books with Japanese stab bindings. But neither format could effectively tell the story the way I saw it: as a progression. Accordion books, with the images unfolding across connected pages, gave me the structure I needed. Berlin, Prague, Presov, Kosice, Cluj, and other Eastern European cities provided the subject matter.
Circles, squares, right angles, and diagonal lines - these formal elements are important both in composing individual photographs and in creating integrated sequences. I use Adobe Photoshop to adjust color and light for a unified effect within each series, and I print with matte ink to enhance the depth of tonal values. But my main focus in assembling the accordion books is on unfolding the images to tell a visual story.

Associated Events

Opening Reception

Book Making Workshop with Artist Laura Holland