Talk Soon
Talk Soon
By Erik Kessels & Thomas Sauvin
18 x 13 cm
Tearaway Postcard Book / 120 cards
Publication date: January 2021
Publisher: Atelier Éditions
First Edition of 1000
ISBN: 978-1-7336220-5-9
Talk Soon is the wordless quarantined dialogue between Dutch artist Erik Kessels and French artist Thomas Sauvin.
Every day, throughout that tumultuous spring of 2020, Erik and Thomas sent one another idiosyncratic, uncaptioned photographs; catalysing an organic, free-associative exchange of some 120 archival images.
Atelier Éditions’ author Kingston Trinder then composed an equally free-associative, altogether-whimsical narrative with which to further entwine the duo’s eclectic photographs. These two archives of vernacular photography, one from the East, the other from the West, achieve a dialogue through the recurrence of photographic practices, aesthetics, and subjects.
Talk Soon, a tearaway postcard book, allows readers to endlessly juxtapose the delightful photographs selected by the two quarantined artists.
2020年春天伊始, 荷兰艺术家Erik Kessels和法国艺术家Thomas Sauvin每日通过邮件传给彼此一张既无标题也无注释的特殊照片。照片接龙的规则十分简要,回复的照片只需从任一角度接续对方传来的上一张照片即可,次日接续前日,一环紧扣一环。除此之外,皆无任何言语文字交换。无声重复的两个月后,一场自然联结又富有肌理的视觉对谈于往来通信间的120张档案库图像中诞生。
新西兰作家Kingston Trinder根据这段对话构成了一段完全异想天开、又同样自在关联的文字叙事,将两个档案库的二重奏更加紧密地缠绕在了一起。两个白话摄影的档案库,通过对摄影实践、美学和主题的重现,展开了一场东方与西方的视觉对话。
Erik Kessels长期收集散落在跳蚤市场、集市、旧货店和网上的照片,并对它们进行适当整理和重新关联。Thomas Sauvin 自2009年起从北京的废品回收站持续抢救废旧底片,积攒成一个庞大迷人的影像银矿,而后这个档案项目也扩展囊括至从旧货市场和互联网淘来的零散印刷孤品和老旧相册等多样收藏。时至今日,该档案库涵盖了超过85万份视觉记录,主要集中于20世纪后半叶的中国。
在这场对谈中,昔日栖身跳蚤市场和废品回收站的生活旧照通过奇妙、暧昧的细节呼应隔空接龙,重新展现出摄影记录日常生活的无限可能。Talk Soon 《回头再聊》通过线圈将两个档案库的120张照片并置成册,呈现出双方对谈的流动与接续。西方半裸女人微微隆起的腹部,瞬移到东方小伙T恤里藏匿的足球;下一幕孕育出新的生命,翻篇摆出亚当夏娃的禁果,对称整齐,被桌球青年一杆打入洞中。整本相册似一场连贯又跳跃的影像蒙太奇,串起无数零散漂泊、扑朔迷离实际充满幽默和惊喜的匿名人生。中间拦腰断开的分割又保证了各自项目的特质与独立,赋予观者打破组合序列与探索别样解读的自由。每单张照片皆可沿左侧虚缝撕下,当作明信片寄出,贴上邮票开启新的交谈旅程。