Bartalos

Paper Space in display mode.

My Imprint crew and I at the San Francisco Center for the Book are pleased to announce the publication of Kota Ezawa’s Paper Space, a hand-assembled artist’s book issued in an edition of 40 signed and numbered copies, each housed in a custom-crafted box.

Paper Space is a 4-page pop-up consisting of paper cut-out dioramas based on film and TV depictions of historic events from the mid 19th century to the present. The book unfolds into a free-standing structure divided into four spaces — each housing one of the pop-up scenes.

Paper Space, page 1: Witnesses to Lincoln’s assassination.

Kota describes the sequence as ‘a timeline of events that have disrupted and confused America’s view of itself.’ Page 1 shows witnesses of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865 at Ford Theatre. The second diorama re-creates John F. Kennedy’s limousine passing the grassy knoll in Dallas in 1963. Page 3 presents O.J. Simpson and his legal team awaiting the reading of his 1995 criminal trial verdict. The last diorama recreates the infamous brawl at Auburn Palace in Detroit, involving players of the Indiana Pacers, the Detroit Pistons, and fans attending the 2003 NBA game. 
 
These dioramas also reference Kota’s existing animated films. (Pages 1 & 2: The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 2005; page 3: The Simpson Verdict, 2002; page 4: Brawl, 2008.)

Paper Space, page 2: JFK limousine, Dallas.

Kota adds: “On another level Paper Space meditates about space – the space of a book, the space of a page, the book as a space, flatness and three-dimensionality. In this way, two of the most persistent illusions that surround us – time and space – form a kind of pact in this book to create a Paper Space for history.”

Paper Space, page 3: OJ Simpson verdict.

Kota Ezawa refers to himself as a video, film, and photography archaeologist unearthing animations and still images that are hidden in archival footage. His projects have taken the form of digital animations, slide projections, lightboxes, paper cutouts, intaglio etchings, ink drawings and wood sculptures. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions at Madison Square Park in New York; Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, OH; St. Louis Art Museum; Artspace, San Antonio; and the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. He has participated in group exhibitions at Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh; Art Institute of Chicago; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; as well as the 5th Seoul International Biennale of Media Art and the 2004 Shanghai Biennale. Kota Ezawa is an Assistant Professor at the California College of the Arts and lives in San Francisco and Berlin.

Paper Space, page 4: Pacers-Pistons basketball brawl.

Paper Space is the seventh annual Artist-in-Residency publication of the SFCB’s Imprint, which I chair. Our program’s mission is to raise awareness of book arts as a vital genre in contemporary art, to bring fresh perspectives to the field, and to support artists in their vocation.

Our resident artists represent the San Francisco Bay Area’s rich creative community, ranging from the fine arts and multi-media to photographers, poets and writers. The Artist-in-Residency program is made possible through book sales, donations and artist sponsorships.

To purchase any of our publications, please visit sfcb.org/imprint/artist-residence. You may also contact Head of Studio Operations Rhiannon Alpers at 415-565-0545 x10 or rhiannon@sfcb.org with inquiries about the artwork, orders, or shipping.

We’d like to extend a big thanks to Kota for his enthusiastic collaboration and to Haines Gallery for helping us realize and distribute this exemplary edition.