LPP Exhibit Series Volume I: SIGHTS + SOUNDS

Little Paper Planes is producing a new publishing venture integrating the intentions of a gallery exhibition in conjunction with the zine culture. The LPP Exhibit Series is a non-traditional presentation of contemporary art functioning as a tangible form connected with a unified virtual aspect. This online platform will hold additional elements provided by each artist to further their concepts. The project is an expansion on a variety of ideas furnished by a selected group of artists who wish to reach a larger audience without having the confinements of a physical space.

This new series expands how we experience an exhibition through various media and mediums as well as assisting in the engagement and momentum of collecting art ephemera.

The first volume of The LPP Exhibit Series is Sights + Sounds in which the themed subject is based on the visual artist who makes sound and music. In addition to providing a piece for the visual exhibition, the artist has a song or sound bite included with the booklet on a cassette tape. One page is designated for text, which is left open-ended and at the artist’s discretion (bio, prose, poem, lyrics to song, etc). The other page are the visual aids either directly or conceptually connected with their sound piece. The third part of the exhibition is an online component. We have a virtual feed where the artist can post other elements that cannot fit into the book or cassette. This gives artists an additional platform to expand their ideas in the immaterial form of the Internet. The artist can present video, installation shots, photography, etc.

DIGITAL FEED

“To Sober and Quiet the Mind” is a collection of John Cage’s visual works he created with Crown Point Press in San Francisco over the course of his life. His philosophy on art was connected to and dependent on the everyday. Cage’s interest lay in the nuances, interruptions, disruptions and subtleties of everyday life and sound naturally highlighted this temporality. Cage’s work with sound, image and the everyday was preceded by artists in the Futurist and Dada movements, and his contemporaries in the Fluxus movement, who all employed a variety of media and performance styles. Their influences can be felt in contemporary music, theater, dance and art, and beyond.

Sights + Sounds will take a close look at the relationship of visuals and sounds and how they inform or influence one another. When looking at Cage’s visual work, I am immediately reminded of his sounds. The strokes dance on the paper as a non-linear score, creating a movement in a static image. The visual work acts as a bridge of pictorial information to an aural domain. With its layering of information and reconfiguration, sound can be similar to collage. The German artist Kurt Schwitters explored early installation and sound poems. Like the unpredictable image-scavenging of collage, many artists invent systems for themselves to work under. In 1975 musician Brian Eno, who trained as a visual artist, created instructional cards with painter Peter Schmidt called “Oblique Strategies.” These cards acted as a conceptual construct to create solutions for problems while in the studio recording. This set of parameters to work under provided the appearance of logic even though it ultimately relied on chance. The visuals in turn assisted in developing an unexpected new language in sound. Utilizing both sound and visuals holds a tension between the ephemeral sound and the physical object, creating a dynamic relationship between these two sensibilities. Sights + Sounds will highlight the visual component, whether it be text or image, in the practice of artists who use sound. -Kelly Lynn Jones

The Artists: David Barclay, Alex Heilbron, Peter Hurley, Cortney Cassidy, Modern Witch, Danny Espinoza, Victoria Keddie, THE SUN, SCUBA, William Edmonds, Louis Reith, Jesse Kauppila, Collin McKelvey, Rachelle Rahme, Holly Herndon, Ola Ståhl

The 36-page book measures 7.5 x 5.5″ and is printed both full-color on bright white paper as well as black/white on newsprint paper, alternating throughout the book and has a letterpressed cover. The booklets come in an edition of 100, all hand numbered. The tape is 74 minutes in length with 16 tracks split into two parts, and comes with a digital download link.

To buy Sights + Sounds, go HERE