OKOKOKSCORPIOPYRAMIDS

A new book set produced by The Ice Plant of Mike Slack's polaroid work.

Each sizes up at about 7x9"

Titles included in the set:

OKOKOK
Second Edition 1/2000 edition (August 15, 2006)

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Scorpio
Second Edition 1/2000 edition (August 15, 2006)

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Pyramids
First Edition edition (November 30, 2009)


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I have only been able to get my hands on OKOKOK. But I think the design is pretty much uniform throughout the set. Each book has a minimalist design resulting in a concentration of all graphic/color elements onto a 3x3 inch square at the center of every other page. In other words, a book of Polaroids photo album style.

Awash in ambiguity, the book at first glance seems to be all about graphic forms with little cohesion of content. The instamatic Polaroid format implies a loose, amateurish/ vernacular photo approach. Yet, each image has a lo-fi sophistication. They are short precise quips. The contents are a sort of free flowing stream of consciousness. While the images don't refer to a specific time, place, or coherent narrative, it is this "anything goes" approach that ties everything together quite nicely. Like a meandering daydream. As I turned the pages I had no idea what to expect next. Slack manages an endless combination of graphic jigsaw puzzle pieces and colors, alien landscapes and architecture, gesture and abstraction.

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From the publisher's site:

"Presented as physical artifacts of fictitious events to be deciphered by the viewer, the pictures also document the travels, observations and graphic fixations of the photographer..."

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It could be a cop-out, but I like the idea of "physical artifacts of fictitious events to be deciphered by the viewer". It frees the artist to experiment and lets the viewer in on the process. The final piece to the art book puzzle is me. It's like an author writing half of a book, leaving the reader to finish the ends of his sentences. Or, perhaps, the reader is left to just appreciate the incomplete sentences for what they are.

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His website is pretty cool too. I especially like the links page.

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Photo by Mike Slack