German/Jew

Description:	German/Jew is made of four hollow paper heads, one on top of the other. The heads wee molded from a plaster cast of the artists head. The innermost head is whole while the other three are split down the face and overlay or wrap around the inner head. Because the three casts do not close (that is, meet to give a seamless look) the sculpture gives the effect of multiple personalities, or at least layered dimensions, of what may seem a single entity from the outside. The words, stenciled into the paper, seem to be variations of German and Jew - repeated, colliding, and infringing upon each other.--Vamp & Tramp Booksellers website (accessed August 16, 2018)Made with pigmented, handmade paper; cast from a plaster cast of my own head, with inclusions of sisal twine and stenciled text binding--Colophon.The casts are made from couched sheets that are laid tightly onto plaster surface. Sheets are formed from a white base layer with embedded twine and a layer of tea-stained stencils on each side. The sheets are pressed before applying stencil to second side. Sheets are pressed again after second side is stenciled with text. They are then laid onto plaster cast and patted firmly onto its surface.Four sets of half portraits (left and right side of head) are cast for the entire book. The embedded twine is used for assembling the book structure at the back of the head through braids.The inspiration to my work is the duality of the human condition. What fascinates me is the seeming paradox of opposites, dichotomies of all sorts living side by side with each other in my own life, in that of others, and in the grander history of human kind: brutality and beauty, grace and grotesque, repulsiveness and dignity. In my work each new piece is a kind of alchemic act towards living with this paradox.--Artist statement from Vamp & Tramp Booksellers website (accessed August 16, 2018).Made with pigmented, handmade paper; cast from a plaster cast of my own head, with inclusions of sisal twine and stenciled text binding--Colophon.Over the years making artist books has become a way for Karen Baldner to encapsulate ideas left unaddressed in her larger bodies of work. As such her books have become witnesses to the processes of her creative cycles. She looks at them as small emissaries of relatively large thought processes. The content of her books covers a gamut of ideas as they evolve from one body of work to another...handmade paper is a staple material in Karen Baldners books. She says, for me it references skin, a place into which lifes process inscribes itself for better or for worse. Thus I hope to provide my viewers with a means to viscerally participate in the witnessing process of my books, whether by touching and reading them or by simply experiencing them visually--Center for Book Arts website.Artist Karen Baldner teaches as an adjunct faculty member at the Herron School of Art, located in Indianapolis, Indiana.Issued in a limited edition of 10 copies.
Origin:	2003
Created By:	Baldner, Karen
Publisher:	Bloomington, IN : Karen Baldner, 2003.
Source:	http://iuidigital.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/BookArts/id/2908
Collection:	Herron Library Fine Press and Book Arts Collection
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Copyright:	In Copyright
Subjects:	Baldner, Karen. Artists books--Specimens. Conceptual art. Artists books--Indiana--Indianapolis. 4 head casts, pigmented handmade paper, sisal twine, silk box, bone and bookcloth closure

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