Ayayay
El Sobrante, CA: Lisa Kokin, 2024. Softcover. Lisa Kokin is a well-known visual artist and book artist who also creates art with sewing and alterations, as well as with button work and assemblage. She also is known for acting as a mentor and coach to people in the arts. Her work is in collections across the U.S. She writes about her work: "One-of-a-kind books have played a major role in my work since the 1990s, and I find that I go back to making books in between working in other formats. Each time I return to books I try to invent a new way of working and a fresh approach. Making books gives me a feeling of comfort, perhaps because I grew up with them and reading is an important part of my life. Bookscrapping began in 2024 when I started to play with the many scraps and “failed” pieces lying around my studio. I have always been interested in fragments, both for their metaphorical associations and for the way that new compositions appear independent of my control. In this way, chance plays a major role in the work. Pieces want to be joined and I am the vehicle for their joining. I know that sounds a bit mystical, but that is the way the process goes, on a good day. CONAsemic text, flags, and oblique social commentary are present in the work despite the absence of actual text. Things are falling apart domestically and globally, and many people are worried. Bookscrapping is a method of joining disparate parts to form wholes, a kind of hopeful metaphor for our troubled times. And, of course, it is a pun on scrapbooking. I can never resist a good (or bad) pun."
"Ayayay, part of my Bookscrapping series, is a pun on AI, using the Spanish equivalent of oy vey. By accident one day, my spouse who does all my technology work, pressed the wrong button and AI spit out a reassembled version of one of my pieces. I thought, 'wow, this could be a new way of working for me!' I set about working from the scrambled image, but soon saw how wrong I was. I had absolutely no emotional connection to the work. So I did what I often do, which is to cut up the failed piece and combine it with another piece that didn't quite work to create something that resonated because it was actually made by me and not a robot." Mixed fiber book, 24 x 15 x 2 inches. Fine.
Item #38364
Price: $7,500.00