STEIDL-WERK no 23: MASAHO ANOTANI: "DEFORMED"

(Hardback)

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Description

The main idea behind STEIDL-WERK No 23 was to create a paper object never seen before. A joint project, it stems from the exclusive collaboration between Theseus Chan's WERK Magazine and Steidl Publishers for this particular issue of WERK. Chan's and Steidl's common interest in the analogue, in art and books, and their addictive fascination with the smell of inks and the texture of paper combines in their shared philosophy of subverting technology by creating work that has a strong human imprint. Accordingly, this magazine issue features a young Japanese artist, Masaho Anotani, whose complex collage-like drawings and sometimes surreal, sometimes disturbing compositions are made almost entirely by hand. The design was inspired by a tightly taped, neatly formed package sent to the magazine by Anotani containing his printouts-an idea that found its way into the book itself which comes as an entirely sealed entity. The title "DEFORMED" is part of the idea to create a misshapen book that evolves along the process of coming into existence. Building on the concept of clashing, of creating and destructing the final product, something new - a chaotic bricolage of "printed junk" - is born.

Author Bio

Born in 1961, Theseus Chan is a Singaporean graphic artist and print matter designer with a keen interest in visual arts, materials, printing and processing technology. His design studio, WORK, has been publishing WERK magazine since 2000. He was named Designer of the Year at the inaugural President's Design Award Singapore in 2006. Other distinctions include several D&AD Yellow Pencils, New York Art Directors Club (ADC) and Tokyo Type Director's Club. In 2012, he became the first Singaporean designer to have a solo exhibition at ggg, Ginza Graphic Gallery, Tokyo, and his work is also in the permanent collection of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, and M+, Museum of Visual Culture in Hong Kong. Masaho Anotani was born in Hyogo, Japan, in 1991. He studied design at Seika University, Kyoto, and Fine Arts at Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam and currently lives and works in Tokyo.