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Mark Boyles und Joan Hills' Reise um die Welt 3 = Mark Boyle and Joan Hills - Journey to the surface of the earth 3. Schweizer Serie = The Swiss site. Exhibition catalogue, Kunstmuseum Luzern, January 27 - March 9, 1980. Texts: Martin Kunz, and Mark Boyle. Lucerne: Kunstmuseum Luzern, 1980.
60 unnumbered pages : color, black and white illustrations ; 24 x 22.2 cm.
ISBN 3-267-00011-4
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60 unnumbered pages : color, black and white illustrations ; 24 x 22.2 cm.
ISBN 3-267-00011-4
Draft orig Abstract by EM, translated by HM, to be edited by Claudia St. and MK
Vol 3. bilingual in English and German, bears the title Mark Boyles’ und Joan Hill’s Reise um die Welt – Schweizer Serie / Mark Boyle’s and Joan Hill’s Journey to the Surface of the Earth – The Swiss Site, and is dedicated to the couple’s two-year exploration of a Swiss locale, of which the report was then presented, in 1980, as an exhibition at Kunstmuseum Luzern. This exhibition and its catalogue had been preceded by the artist’s major retrospective—Mark Boyle’s Journey to the Surface of the Earth Vol. 1—at the British pavilion of the 1978 Venice Biennale; and it was in the course of that retrospective that visitors had taken part in a chance-based operation which resulted in the indication that the artists were to make a journey of exploration to a certain locale in Switzerland. At Kunstmuseum Luzern, the artists thus presented a thorough documentation of that journey. Though based on the exploration of an entirely chance-determined site, the resultant work was quite germane and presented a wealth of various kinds of information.
The artist’s praxis consisted of an objective and detailed, but almost “obsessively chance-determined” exploration of the surface of the earth and of inhabited urban centers; and the destinations of these journeys of exploration were often determined in nearly playful ways, such as by darts thrown at a globe or a world map by visitors at an exhibition. Mark Boyle and his wife Joan Hills then traveled to the designated places, abandoning all subjective whims on things to do in the course of their travels. They limited themselves entirely to the collection of large or small samples of the territory they were visiting, also photographing particulars of its animal and vegetable life: photographs that were then enlarged into unrecognizability. The end result is the expression of a highly original aesthetic that aims to rid itself of any subjective gaze, but which again becomes personal and individual by way of the deployment of various means of documentation which are also inclusive of video, writing, and live performance.
Vol 3. bilingual in English and German, bears the title Mark Boyles’ und Joan Hill’s Reise um die Welt – Schweizer Serie / Mark Boyle’s and Joan Hill’s Journey to the Surface of the Earth – The Swiss Site, and is dedicated to the couple’s two-year exploration of a Swiss locale, of which the report was then presented, in 1980, as an exhibition at Kunstmuseum Luzern. This exhibition and its catalogue had been preceded by the artist’s major retrospective—Mark Boyle’s Journey to the Surface of the Earth Vol. 1—at the British pavilion of the 1978 Venice Biennale; and it was in the course of that retrospective that visitors had taken part in a chance-based operation which resulted in the indication that the artists were to make a journey of exploration to a certain locale in Switzerland. At Kunstmuseum Luzern, the artists thus presented a thorough documentation of that journey. Though based on the exploration of an entirely chance-determined site, the resultant work was quite germane and presented a wealth of various kinds of information.
The artist’s praxis consisted of an objective and detailed, but almost “obsessively chance-determined” exploration of the surface of the earth and of inhabited urban centers; and the destinations of these journeys of exploration were often determined in nearly playful ways, such as by darts thrown at a globe or a world map by visitors at an exhibition. Mark Boyle and his wife Joan Hills then traveled to the designated places, abandoning all subjective whims on things to do in the course of their travels. They limited themselves entirely to the collection of large or small samples of the territory they were visiting, also photographing particulars of its animal and vegetable life: photographs that were then enlarged into unrecognizability. The end result is the expression of a highly original aesthetic that aims to rid itself of any subjective gaze, but which again becomes personal and individual by way of the deployment of various means of documentation which are also inclusive of video, writing, and live performance.
Exhibition catalogue, Kunstmuseum Luzern, January 27 - March 9, 1980. Texts: Martin Kunz, and Mark Boyle
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