To See Stars over Mountains
Published by PEER and Unstable Object, 2022.
ISBN: 978-1-8380422-1-9 (Unstable Object)
376 pages
An artist’s book published on the occasion of my exhibition By Hand, on Foot at PEER, London.
With an essay by Lauren Elkin.
Design: David Caines.
Each day in 2021, Vlatka Horvat took a photograph while on a walk. These photographs of landscapes and urban locations became the basis for To See Stars over Mountains, a series of 365 works on paper. After printing each day’s photograph on her home inkjet printer, Horvat transforms them manually in different ways; by drawing or collaging on top of it, by making cuts or tears in the paper, by folding the page or relocating parts of the image.
The photographic source images used in these works were largely taken on Horvat’s daily walks in the parks local to her North London neighbourhood, while a smaller number of them arise from the artist’s travels outside of the UK later in the year. Consequently, amongst her recurring documents of urban green space and housing blocks there are occasional views from trains or planes, as well as images from walks in more distant locations – changes of landscape and context which alter the language of the work, before familiar landscapes of North London return. In one subset of pictures – forming a stark counterpoint to the motion and exterior spaces of the rest – Horvat marks a ten-day period of Covid-related self-isolation with a series of views of a residential street as seen from a bedroom window.
The 365 works that make up To See Stars over Mountains transform these photographic documents in a variety of playful and provocative ways. This book gathers all the works that comprise the project, a diary of sorts as well as a thoughtful re-imagining of the landscape and its possibilities.
Available:
In London at Burley Fisher Books, PEER, the ICA London bookshop,
in Paris at Yvon Lambert libraire,
in Helsinki at PUBLICS,
and can also be ordered from me directly (see contact page).
Related project pages: By Hand on Foot, To See Stars over Mountains.
