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EDGAR ARCENEAUX: 107TH STREET WATTS
(ARCENEAUX, EDGAR). Arceneaux, Edgar. Franklin Sirmans, Editor. Frankfurt am Main, GERMANY: Revolver Archiv fur Aktuelle Kunst, 2003. First Edition 1/1000. 8vo. Wrappers in Slipcase. Artist's Book. Fine/No Jacket - As Issued.. np + np (18 + 20pp), 1 b&w illustration. Text in English. "In his conceptual photography project "107th Street Watts", Edgar Arceneaux follows a desire to produce a number of strong visual counter-arcs to a relentlessly mediated social space, as well as a desire to ignite a critique of the narrow histories of Los Angeles' provocative past. Expanding the traditional subjects of Southern California artistic practice, the artist photographed an area of the world known through a singular event in its history: the Watts Riots of 1965. Performing the type of clinical overlay of the street in the manner of Ed Ruscha and his well-known 1966 mapping of the Sunset Strip, "107th Street Watts" formally mimics Ruscha's piece by shooting every building on 107th Street (the location of the historic Watts Towers) in a photomontage across one accordion-folded sheet, allowing for it to be opened and pulled completely out for an undisturbed viewing from end to end". Housed in the publisher's glossy white unprinted slipcase, there is a second, companion volume containing essays by Malik Charles Gaines, Lynell George and Vincent Johnson. A bright, most handsome example (featured on pages 74-75 of Jeffrey Brouws, Wendy Burton and Hermann Zschiegner's "Various Small Books: Referencing Various Small Books by Ed Ruscha") in the publisher's slipcase, as issued. 3-934823-82-3 Inventory Number: 027507