Sara Elgerot

[a serene] Book of Frustration. Sara Elgerot, 2013. Unpaged, illustrated throughout, 42cm uncurled.

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Book description:

“I made a book out of frustration; it became serene.”

Materials:
Scrap paper (trimmed-off paper from other book), recycled plastic (‘handles’ from household packaging), recycled plastic ties (from consumer packaging).


Blog link: http://rareautumn.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-serene-book-of-frustration.html

Other//Colours Of A Day. A book by Sara Elgerot for ‘An Inventory of Al-Mutanabbi Street’, 2013. Unpaged, illustrated throughout, 21x13cm. Signed and numbered. Edition of 3 books (+1 artist copy).

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This book was made for ‘An Inventory of Al-Mutanabbi Street’ - a project initiated by Beau Beausoleil (USA) and co-curated by Sarah Bodman (UK). Links: here and here.

I’ve been very moved by this project and its intent, and am very happy to be part of it.


Book description:

” “I was born in Sweden of Swedish parents. Sweden has not had or been in war since 1814. It is not the same. I’ve lived most of my adult life in the UK. I lived in London on 7/7/2005, very near to where the bombs went off. Then life moved on. It is not the same.

I knew Baghdad only from history lessons and books. I knew its book market from “We Came To Baghdad” and a documentary which chronicled Agatha Christie’s life in Mesopotamia and talked at length of Baghdad’s bookstalls and book market. ‘One day’, I thought, ‘one day I will visit’. Then I knew Baghdad from a war we marched against, terror that doesn’t stop. Years, a decade, later it hasn’t stopped. It is not the same.

I wanted to make a book for transformation, with one wish: May all beings know and live in peace.”

The book was inspired by transformation and the phrase “The River Turned Black with Ink”. It was made by taking newspaper photographs of the destruction on and of Al-Mutanabbi Street treating them with water, painting with the water on the paper until all the colours had emerged and blended together. Cut up and assembled into books they have turned into ‘other’.”


Materials & Technique:
Newspaper photographs printed on paper, treated with and painted on with water. Scanned in and printed out unaltered. Gathered, folded, cut and assembled. Cover: ancient Baghdad map printed on paper and treated with water. Hand-bound with white and coloured thread.


Edition of three copies, which is donated to the project (+one artist copy). All copies are made up of different parts of the original sheets, which means each copy is different. Each copy is also bound with different coloured (exposed) threads.

One copy of ‘Other//Colours Of A Day’ will be donated to the Iraq National Library in Baghdad, whereas the other two copies will be part of touring exhibitions for the next few years in conjunction with the ‘Al-Mutanabbi Street Broadside Project’.


Blog link:  http://rareautumn.blogspot.com/2013/05/othercolours-of-day.html

Utkantsliv. For Udkant/On the margins, Doverodde Book Arts Festival 2012. Book by Sara Elgerot / Rare Autumn, 2012. 26pp., illustrated throughout, 20,5x15,5cm. Edition of 1 book (+1 artist copy).

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Book description:

‘Utkantsliv’ (Swedish for life on the outskirts or life on the margins), is an exploration of an unknown entity for me in my home town of Stockholm - a place now strangely unfamiliar to me after years abroad.

I started discovering these anonymous areas on the outskirts of the city, mainly just houses/housing blocks sprung up in close proximity to public transport. I got very interested in these “hinterlands”, their strange, careless mix of nature and industrial elements.

This book is the result of walks through one of these areas. The photographs are purposefully anonymous and up-close, void of people and wider context, a highly personal view and examination of somewhere strangely impersonal and interchangeable.


This book was made for Doverodde Book Arts Festival 2012 (17-21 May 2012) on the theme of Udkant/On the margins.

The Book Arts exhibition ‘Udkant/On the margins’, of which this book is part, will be on until August 5th, 2012.

The copy of ‘Utkantsliv’ will thereafter be donated to Doverodde Book Arts Center Artists’ Books collection.


Materials: photographs printed with inkjet on matte, double-sided, coated paper (175gsm). Hand-folded, hand-trimmed and hand-sewn, with a soft cover.


Blog link: http://rareautumn.blogspot.com/2012/04/utkantsliv.html

The Revolution Will Be Televised / Nature Can’t Be Tamed. By Sara Elgerot / Rare Autumn, 2011. 14pp., b/w illustrations throughout, 7x10cm. Second/modified edition: 10 copies (hand-signed and numbered) plus 1 artist’s proof.

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The first edition of this book/zine was a limited edition of 15, which was part of the June/Winter issue of IMPRINT (with 1 copy in the PCA archive).

This second edition is printed on a paper with different texture and slightly higher grain. The finish and dimension of the book are also slightly different. It’s limited to an edition of 10.


Book description:

A comment on the upheaval in the world right now. The change in society, the world structure - the change in reporting, viewing and reacting to world events, other cultures and other parts of the world.

Our reactions to conflict, and those things outside our control.


The starting-point for this artist book was the upheaval in the world that felt very prevalent to me (demonstrations through-out the middle east and the earthquake in Japan was perhaps the main starting point for this). From this I started thinking about the turmoil in the world, the change in the world order/balance, our environment, demonstrations through-out the world – and also the change in how this is reported, presented and perceived.

The title is a play on Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’ (which for our time is perhaps the complete opposite) and the fact that we in our fabricated world somehow think we are, and also actually are up to a point, living outside nature and the laws of nature.


The book was made by cutting images from newspaper reports on natural disasters, demonstrations and violence (man-made and natural catastrophes eerily similar in their appearance).

The images were layered and assembled into collages, text added, then photocopied on different copiers, scanned, copied, layered, cut and printed on inkjet in black & white.

The resulting pieces were then folded into books, trimmed and staple-bound.


UPDATE: This book can now be found in the Bower Ashton Library Artists’ Books collection, the Centre for Fine Print Research Artists’ Books Collection, and the LCC Library Zine Collection.


Blog link: http://rareautumn.blogspot.com/2011/10/revolution-will-be-televised-nature.html

The Infinite Journey. A response to “x= or what is to be done?”, the tenth anniversary of bookartbookshop. Book by Sara Elgerot / Rare Autumn, 2011. 10pp., illustrated throughout, 10,9x8,3cm.

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Book description:

‘The Infinite Journey’ takes its starting point from a fairly literal reading of “x= or what is to be done?” (“x=” symbol, and “what is to be done?” always has a political connotation to me), as well as the symbolism/mythology surrounding the year 2012 and the 10 year “arc” of the bookartbookshop and its symbolism in my life.

It’s concerned with the use of symbols to represent ideas/qualities (and by extension the shape of symbols), protest movements through a sentimental tint, mythology and rebirth in thoughts, and the circular way life comes around.

The “infinite” in the title is a play on the infinity symbol.


The materials used are inkjet and crayon/pen on white aquarelle paper, with crayon/pen on black 200gsm paper insert and cover. Folded and staple-bound with a soft cover.


Blog link: http://rareautumn.blogspot.com/2011/12/infinite-journey.html

To Young Man or Woman in Search of Ideal II. By Sara Elgerot / Rare Autumn, 2011. 12pp., b/w illustrations throughout, 14,8x21cm. Bibliophile edition & normal edition, which is limited to an edition of 20 (hand-signed and numbered). 

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This book centers around extracts from the chapter ‘To A Young Man or Woman in Search of the Ideal II’ from the book ‘Search-Light Letters’ by Robert Grant (you can read the entire book on Project Gutenberg).

Some sentences have been enlarged, distorted, taken out of context and given more/less/different importance and/or intent than in the original text. The pages have been distressed, manipulated and graphic elements have been introduced.

The materials used are inkjet on paper, with recycled plastic and recycled paper elements. Folded and staple-bound.

A modified edition of ‘To Young Man or Woman in Search of Ideal II’ was distributed as part of the Bibliophile project at Spike Island Artists’ Book and Zine Fair on Saturday 8 October, 2011.


UPDATE: This book can now be found in the Bower Ashton Library Artists’ Books collection, the Centre for Fine Print Research Artists’ Books Collection, and the LCC Library Zine Collection.


Blog link: http://rareautumn.blogspot.com/2011/10/to-young-man-or-woman-in-search-of.html

Untitled 1. With the poem ‘Lullaby’ by Rosie Miles. Book by Sara Elgerot / Rare Autumn, 2011. Hand-constructed. 21x15cm. Limited edition of 1 (plus 1 artist’s proof).

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This book is part of Rosie Miles ‘Poetry and Illustration Project’, and takes its starting point from her poem ‘Lullaby’.

It can be displayed as a book and opened and read as one, but it also has a sculptural quality to it where it can be viewed or displayed as such. Doing so also “lays the poem bare” and leaves the words in a way unprotected (perhaps a braver display of emotions?).

The materials used for the book also reflects a protectiveness of a poem that I felt to be fragile, but also direct and non-cynical.

For example, the paper covering the book boards are the type of tissue paper one uses to protect fragile items when moving. This kind of paper has an interesting quality as it’s fragile and rips easily as a single sheet, but folded around an item it becomes sturdy and capable of protecting items that easily breaks.

The book has a sort of utilitarian feel, which I thought was an interesting contrast to its content which could perhaps be viewed as having a more romantic or sentimental tone.


Also see Untitled 2, which was made as an extension of (and to be displayed with) this book.’.


Blog link: http://rareautumn.blogspot.com/2011/10/untitled-1.html

Untitled 2. With the poem ‘Lullaby’ by Rosie Miles. Book by Sara Elgerot / Rare Autumn, 2011. Hand-constructed. 6x2,5cm. Limited edition of 1 (plus 1 artist’s proof).

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This is the second book that is part of Rosie Miles ‘Poetry and Illustration Project’, and also takes its starting point from her poem ‘Lullaby’.

‘Untitled 2’ is an extension of (and to be displayed with) the book Untitled 1.

As ‘Untitled 1’, ‘Untitled 2’ can be displayed as a book and opened and read as one and also has a sculptural quality to it where it can be viewed or displayed as such.
It also share the same protectiveness and utilitarian feel in the use of materials and execution.

In ‘Untitled 2’ the protection of the poem has taken one step further however, with the words literally “bolted in”.


Blog link: http://rareautumn.blogspot.com/2011/10/untitled-2.html