30_Screen-Shot-2023-03-31-at-3.54.28-PM

Plant Light Curtain, 2023 Limited edition artist book 16 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches (42 x 29.7 cm) 100 pages; 45 tipped in, color images printed recto verso Wire-O Binding Clothbound slipcase w/ foil stamp Edition of 30 copies + 2 Artist’s Proofs and 3 Hors Commerce Signed and numbered by the artist Booklet insert with conversation between Sarah Demeuse and Rey Akdogan [RA1279.23] Drawing on an archive of tear sheets from magazines covering interior design, architecture, and lifestyle, Rey Akdogan uses subtraction to transform the way in which these images can be recognized and read. Experimenting with the plasticity of the paper and the porousness of pigments, these subtractions scramble the societal and economic hierarchies embedded in advertising media. The artist focuses on the recurrence of light, plants, and curtains as atmospheric elements; and in an accompanying conversation with writer and curator Sarah Demeuse, reflects on classification systems, the subtle ways value is constructed through principles of organization, and how these ordering approaches have shifted in the distracted pandemic years. The project tests the format of the swatch book—an important tool for various disciplines: architecture, interior design, theatre, cinema, and graphic design. The visualization of languages of classification underscores the ways environmental atmospheres are projected on the basis of small, standardized fragments and the manner in which these samples reflect hierarchies of value.