Simon Starling, Carbon

, 2004

Starting from both unassuming everyday objects and artefacts of cultural significance, Simon Starling construes and often humorously absurd, but oddly, astonishingly logical chain of interacting conditions. This chain can be seen as an allusion to a global situation seen through the background of historical references; Starling thus engages with the complex interplay of memory and mechanisms in contemporary society.

The two-part publication designed by Phillip Arnold and Kerstin Riedel documents the two closely related exhibitions at the Städtische Ausstellungshalle Am Hawerkampand the Centre national d’art contemporain Villa Arson in Nice. While the first volume documents the installation Carbon (Pedersen) and includes an accompanying text by the artist annotated by Francesco Manacorda, the second volume is dedicated to an edited version of the slide work Notes on the Buildings of Mr. Naujok and Mr. Jeanneret.