Sunday, January 27, 2013

Laborious Simplicity

Belgian artist Kris Martin (b. 1972) spent five months in 2005 working daily to produce the book above. Word for word he hand-copied the whole of Dostoevsky's long 19th century novel The Idiot, altering the text in only one respect – every time the name of the main character, Prince Mishkin, appeared on the page, Kris Martin substituted his own name.

His current show at Kestner Gesellschaft in Hannover brings together only about a dozen of Martin's spare sleek enigmatic installations, allowing them to interact with one another from safe distances. "With minimal interference and reduced means he alters found objects to create blank spaces which viewers can fill with their own interpretations."