Labyrinth

SPECIFICATIONS

  • 6" X 7"
  • 140 PAGES
  • DOUBLE RUBBERBAND BINDING
  • PRINTED USING SPECIALLY DEVELOPED DRUM & TONER TECHNIQUES TO BLEED OUT THE COLOR MIMICKING THE LOOK OF AN OLD, WORN MAGAZINE
  • LASER PRINTED ON THREE DIFFERENT PAPER STOCKS
  • HEAVY-WEIGHT CARD STOCK COVER PRINTED IN HIGH QUALITY COLOR
  • FULL BLEED LAYOUT W/ HAND-CUT EDGES
  • OVER 130+ B&W AND COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS EXCLUSIVE TO THIS VOLUME
  • 1 SPECIALLY MADE, HAND-STAMPED ENVELOPE HOUSING W/ TITLE
  • TEXTWORK WRITTEN BY THE ARTIST ON A PLANE WHILE LEAVING THE PHILIPPINES
  • ALL ZINES ARE SIGNED, STAMPED AND NUMBERED BY THE ARTIST
  • EDITION OF 100 + 5 APs

DESCRIPTION

LABYRINTH is a collection of images created over a 13-day period in the Philippines where Jason Jaworski traveled through different slums and areas accompanied by a gang of little people who, after finding out he was from Los Angeles, thought he was a film director because of all the cameras he had. After telling them he was no one, they didn’t believe him and so they created a kind of collaborative theater where they would play for the camera shooting guns, setting cars on fire, and offering tours of slums around the outskirts of Manila. After asking to have women in the images, the locals said that they didn’t want them photographed, so they dressed and dolled up the men in the slums who performed enthusiastically for the camera along with other men, who out of fear of being recognized, covered their faces with masks. In all, over 40 rolls of film were shot, which were developed in the artist’s studio over the course of two days whereupon the images were edited and sequenced together in time for exhibition in FOCUS:Photography at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. The title, LABYRINTH, is both a comment on the book’s structure where images repeat and undulate in unannounced patterns, as well as being a comment on the book’s design. Using rubber bands bought on location to hold his film together, the artist repurposed the bands to bind each book, allowing readers to create their own maze of imagery and personal labyrinth to navigate themselves.

An artist book produced by SSK Press to accompany the project debuted at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Los Angeles for the 2015 LA Art Book Fair. A photo from the book was featured as the cover image on the December 2015 issue of VICE Magazine where the issue highlighted the project in an artist book spotlight for their Full Bleed section. A signing for the publication was held at MoMA PS1 for the 2015 edition of Printed Matter's NY Art Book Fair.

The first edition of the book from SSK Press is now SOLD OUT.

ARTIST TEXT

I was wandering through freshly fallen snow in Sedona as he told me what was going to happen.
Days later and I’m on a plane headed over 7,000 miles to my left if I were staring up the coast of California. 

Now, a plane ride back to some city I live in but can’t yet call my home and all I can think of are those lights burning bright like the fall flames from a fire lit long ago-

And all those memories in the Mojave moving much like those from yesterday when Manila was my morning and all the songs were sung even though my voice was still out of tune.

A small screen flickers in front of me, numbers blinking back the distance from the sky I’m in to the surface of the Pacific: ~39,000ft.
The ocean is colorless from up here, the sky cloudless.
I close my eyes for a moment to let a random memory from Makati flash in front of me: the streets after the rain, sunset fingers glowing of amber embers and droplets dotted along the surfaces of glass from each car and every window when connected together forming an unseen face I’m still chasing
And going-

*

- Jason Jaworski
2015