Book launch for Carts and Rafts by Celeste Fichter

April 26th, 2014 from 6:30 – 8:30 pm

Join Fuse-Works for a book launch for Carts and Rafts by Celeste Fichter
also congratulate Matt Richards on his new book
and check out a useful new multiple by Christina Kelly and Maddalena Polletta

“A picture shows me at a glance what it takes dozens of pages of a book to expound.” – Ivan Turgenev

Join us this Saturday April 26th at Open Source Gallery for drinks, multiples and books at a party celebrating Carts and Rafts by Celeste Fichter published by Fuse Works, a new “sketchbook” by Matt Richards and a multiple by Christina Kelly and Maddalena Polletta.

Fuse Works is pleased to announce the publication of Carts and Rafts a new book by Celeste Fichter. Fichter’s new book uses found imagery culled from the internet. The resulting collection of transportation-related pairings include all manner of carts (golf, ice cream, shopping) and rafts (inflatable, log, of the Medusa). Fichter’s pictorial slapstick contains a covert object lesson. The diptych pairs created by the book’s spreads summon pre-linguistic associations, like cognitive portmanteaus, or a psycho-visual Esparanto. Witness, for example, an image pairing in which a familiar blue “Granny” cart against a white background faces a blue bikini-clad model reclining on a blue inflatable pool raft. The two images are carefully color-matched, but that simple equivalence belies a rabbit warren of potential relationships. Certainly the association of this cart with old ladies and groceries is in deliberate contrast with the youthful sexuality of the cavorting model. But what of the cart’s slender rails, do they not parallel the blue bikini worn by the model which conceals so little? And yet the cart is empty, it’s rails conceal nothing. Is this a suggestion in relation to the sexuality of the model or the geriatric associations of the cart? And what of the raft and the pool? Other pairings are less hermetic, as when a still from the film “Jaws” of a boy on a raft is paired with a white cart labeled “Ice Cream”. “Ice Cream” quickly becomes “I Scream” in proximity to “Jaws”, though the pun is easy to miss. In Fichter’s handling, it may at first seem that photographs have a similar currency as the clever “click bait” entertainment available on the internet. But the snap and spark beneath the surface is there, creating a currency far greater than the proverbial thousand words. Fichter’s Carts and Rafts will be available Saturday, Fichter will be on hand to sign and dedicate copies. Other titles by Fichter will be available including her new and equally stellar Inactivity Book.

If Lost Please Return to Matt Richards is a sketchbook full of the daily drawings of Matt Richards, who is an artist who haunts New York City as it haunts him. Images made on the subway studying his fellow strap-hangers are interspersed with more fantastical and sometimes twisted musings. If Lost… can be had in one of two ways. The standard edition of If Lost… is signed by Richards. The deluxe edition features an original drawing on the last page and is dedicated to the purchaser by Richards. Richards will be on hand to dedicate and vandalize copies of his book.

New York is quickly approaching the one year anniversary of the roll-out of Citibike. The highly branded bikes have proven quite popular and the response to their impact on city life has been overall positive. Now Christina Kelly and Maddalena Polletta have produced a multiple which allows users of the Citibikes to circumvent the brand, dispensing with the discomfort it may cause to cyclists who are also thinking people. As Kelly reminds us: “Citibank is, after all, one of the big banks that misled investors on exposure to subprime mortgages and used Federal bailout funds for bonuses.” Citibank’s logo appears five times on each of the 6000 bikes. To avoid publicizing the bank while cycling, Kelly and Polletta have produced removable City stickers that obscure the crucial part of the logo. After the ride the sticker is removed and the bike resumes its function as the advertisement that Citibank is entitled to through its sponsorship. The set includes four City stickers to cover the Citibank logo on the wheel and frame, and one Citybike sticker to cover the front basket.

All of the works are available at www.fuse-works.com
Fuse Works: service@fuse-works.com, 718-877-5712