Taking a Slice Out of Modern Art: The Artists’ Books of Noriko Ambe

About these 2 pieces, " キル-CUT: Egon Scheile" and "Current - A Private Atlas : Gerhard Richter" are on the blog of MoMA. 

- From the time you start cutting, about how long does is take you to make each one of these books?

(Basically, it depends on the situation. It can take just a few days, or over six months, to form an idea of how I want to deal with the book. Then, the cutting itself takes a few months, more or less, to complete.)

For Richter and for Schiele, both books took a few months to cut. Organizing my thoughts prior to starting also took a couple of months for each.

• For each book in the series, the cuts have a distinct look and feel - in the Schiele book the shapes follow an arc, while the shapes in the Richter book feel more amorphous and less structured. Can you speak to how the types of cut you made in each book are informed by the images in the book or the style of the artist?

The point when choosing an artist’s catalog to cut is my first impression and whether I feel the actual shape of the book matches the artist's work and ideas. Of course I also research the artist’s bio, texts, etc. later. 

• What attracted you to Schiele and Richter, in particular? 

Richter’s “Atlas” contains more than 5,000 disordered images. There seems to be no emotion in these images -- images such as the surface of the earth or travel photos -- they are merely matter-of-fact documentation.

Pictures of families appear later in the book but these images record nothing more than the passing of time. Melancholy is hidden in the accumulated images. 

I imagine that he drags old memories severed from East Germany and his lost identity creates this melancholy. His viewpoint is the opposite of narcissism, and from that position he views the world and names the book “Atlas”. (It referred to the essays of Benjamin H. D. Buchloh and Jyunya Tanaka.)

I named the piece "A Private Atlas" and tried to create a portrait of Richter using the accumulated images of the world that he himself took. 

Facing the strength of the lines drawn by Schiele, I was made to realize that I am just a knife and this became more important than how I should to cut the book. Facing his lines I began my cutting. Even though my cutting intertwined with the details in his drawings, the cutting lines were absorbed into the strong and chaotic images of death and eroticism in his drawing. When that happened I extended my cutting lines toward the blank background to free the cutting lines. 

The approach I took for each page differed through the process of encountering his posed figures page after page. Sometimes I had to sacrifice many pages for the sake of one page. In other cases a perfect match of compositions between pages accidentally occurred during the process.

Considering myself the knife itself, I attempted to confront Schiele, a forever cutting-edge hero who died at 28.

• All of the artists whose work you've engaged with are male; was this an intentional choice or is it simply a reflection of what you see in the canon of modern & contemporary art history?

To be honest, it was just coincidence. But, if thinking about it, I am a woman, and so working on other female artist's books might be too close to me, the cutting might be conservative. I feel working on male artist's work I could be more objective. Even though I cut a particular artist’s book, I would like to avoid harming their work or name.

My cutting should be somehow universal, symbolic or abstract.

But Cindy Sharman is a different case, I haven’t cut her yet but I’m planning to one of these days. It’s going to take a bit more time.

What is different in the case of Cindy Sherman is how she objectively uses herself as a mannequin -- removing her personal complexes and emotions.

- When the books are exhibited in a museum or gallery they are, of course. displayed in cases and opened to one particular spread. From your point of view, is it necessary for the viewer to page through the whole book to experience it fully, or can one get the full effect of these books from seeing them displayed in this manner?

For Richter、if the book is displayed in a case, it can be stood up and opened a few pages at a time. For Schiele, sometimes we can change the opened page as well. For Schiele, the book is thinner so maybe we can set it up in a frame or lean it against the wall.

- I know that you have made over thirty books in the Cut series - are there more to come?

Yes, this キル−Artists Book Series will continue as a means to develop myself. I’m not trying to simply use another artist for my work.

Thank you.