Interested in notions of collection and consumption, Allen Ruppersberg reconsiders texts, songs, narratives, photographs, and memorabilia culled from American vernacular culture. Remainders: Novel, Sculpture, Film is an installation that mimics a publisher’s remainders display in a bookstore. The artist manipulated the presentation in provocative ways: inserting fictional titles and authors onto book covers; printing the back covers and inside jacket flaps of each book with the entire screenplay of a 1960s educational film that warns of the dangers of hallucinogenic drugs; and inserting into each book a series of full-page, black-and-white stills from the artist’s film archive. Installed in a museum setting, the texts become a sculptural work that is seen instead of read.
Images: Ruppersberg´s work Remainders: Novel, Sculpture, Film installed at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. The occasion was the artist’s retrospective. Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property 1968-2018. The framed book covers and the installed work are shown together.
About the authors:
Allen Ruppersberg (US, b. 1944) has explored a wide range of media and approaches, rooted in language, images and ideas filtered through the lens of mass culture. His projects consistently focus on the American vernacular—its books, music, popular images, and everyday ephemera—uncovering the visual details and unsung conventions that encourage a rediscovery of the past. Often participatory, Ruppersberg’s works invite a layered experience for the viewer through words and accumulated elements.
Thomas Cvikota has a 45 year career as an arts professional collaborating with publishers, printers, artists, museums, galleries, academia and arts institutions to produce, promote and present fine art editions: lithographs, etchings, relief prints, screenprints, multiples, books, journals, sound recordings, films and installation works.
