Collections
Daumenkino : The Flip Book Show / Jörg Jochen Berns; Daniel Gethmann; Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.; et al
Books
REF.EC.1315
332 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 27 cm. + 1 videodisc (DVD : sd., col. ; 4 3/4 in.)
2005
Exhibition catalogs, Flip books
Catalog for the Daumenkino: The Flip Book Show exhibition from May 7- July 17, 2005. DVD included at the back of the catalog.
From publisher’s description: “A flip book is a book that becomes a cinema for a short space of time; it is a sequence of images that reveals its narrative as you look at it, an object that you have to touch in order to get it to tell its story. In the world’s first comprehensive exhibition on the subject, the thematic and contextual convergence of art, animation and film in the 20th Century is charted, placing the flip book, a well-known and yet scantly regarded medium, squarely in the public eye. Simultaneously both book and pocket cinema, picture sequence and narrative, the flip book has elicited wide-ranging artistic interpretation over the years and provided fascinating insights into the anatomy of the moving image ever since it was patented in 1868 by the English printer John Barnes Linnett. Included in the presentation are flip books both from the past and the present, experimental films and artists books, which in turn derive their effect from the sequential order of their pictures and as such, share a certain commonality with the flip book by virtue of their medium - not every flip book can immediately be recognized as such. Harnessing its formal parameters, artists have regarded the medium as a challenge, used it and interpreted it anew.
The exhibition comprises flip books gathered from more than 170 artists and filmmakers and divides them up into different categories: from monographic retrospectives (Ruth Hayes/George Griffin), surveys of particular forms of image (portrait/short film), thematic references to the history of erotic animation, specific eras (1960s, 1970s) to current artistic positions which extend the range of the flip book. The vast majority of the flip books can actually be touched or thumbed-through by visitors to the exhibition. In addition, alternative methods of presentation have been developed to accommodate rare or historic specimens focusing on the specific attributes of the flip book, such as its diminutive size and the way it is individually perceived. The main focus of the exhibition is upon flip books by contemporary artists and filmakers, such as John Baldessari, Robert Breer, Tacita Dean, Elliott Erwitt, Julia Featheringill, Jårg Geismar, Volker Gerling, Gilbert & George, Douglas Gordon, Keith Haring, Sabine Hecher, William Kentridge, Sigrun Köhler, Eric Lanz, Jonathan Monk, Bruce Nauman, Stephanie Ognar, Tony Oursler, Dieter Roth, Miguel Rothschild, Jack Smith, Beat Streuli, Andy Warhol and Janet Zweig amongst others. The exhibition is curated by Christoph Schulz and Daniel Gethmann.”