Reading

Reading is the first work I created in UK. Within the film, the object I photographed is the book: Eva Hesse (Lucy R. Lippard. 1976), which is the edition of 1992 and the first edition was published in 1976. When I was a student in college, I made various sort of artworks using different forms. Some were installations of sculpture made by mixed materials. During the period of a B.A. student, I did some research of modern art. Eva Hesse was one of artists I studied and I was interested in her way of dealing with materials and arranging the objects created by her. Moving to Leeds and starting the art practices of PhD research were great challenges and brought about considerable changes in myself last year. By rethinking the context of my former works, I searched for some books or portfolios of artists I appreciated in the library of University of Leeds. even though they are not close to the digital film field. This was how I found this book in the library. The book was first published by New York University in 1976. Initially I just borrowed it from the library in order to read about Eva Hesse whose work I love Eva Hesse. I wanted to understand more deeply Eva Hesse’s context and works. I tried to read the essay in the book but while touching the paper material I could not help being attracted by the book itself. It is an object for me. From my observation, the book has been read and used many times. There is a sort of time rambling onto the book with silent speed. The pages have turned to a sort of light yellow, the edge of the cover is broken and the surface of the grey printed cover has been partially scratched by former readers. The shape of the book is no longer symmetrical as a result of an invisible movement of every reader thumbing the book. The cover has lost a section, there is a trace of folding and the right side of the pages have been slowly sculpted by readers’ fingers as a section of wave or hill. This man-made object is no longer the original one because it has been gradually changed, re-shaped in time and space. The same book will be in other libraries but the physical condition of the book will be different from this one in University of Leeds Library. With the fusion of time, space and movement, the old paper book has been transformed into a unique being in the world, and it is still gradually transforming on my desk. During this endless transformation, I represent a small section of the movement and change from the day I borrowed the book to the day I put it back in the return box. There are various sections of movement overlapping in the book. My fingers touch what former readers’ fingers touched. Reviewing the list of readers and the trace of different users, I know I am not alone within the field of fine art. I started to image how other “Eva Hesse / Lucy R. Lippard” might look like in other libraries. The book originally was one of the publication of “Eva Hesse / Lucy R. Lippard” created from a press. When the edition was printed and bound, they must have looked quite similar, almost the same. They were the product of mechanical reproduction but now they are individual objects. The object aspect of this work should be expanded to a further discussion, the issue of mechanical reproduction and physical time and space.