Upright is fine, but downright is where I am
June 2021
Accordion-fold artist’s book containing 30 double-sided 5” x 7” archival prints; bound in a flocked clamshell box, 9” x 12”, 2021, Edition of 7
Produced with the support of Gallery TPW, Toronto ON
Shannon Garden-Smith artist’s book Upright is fine, but downright is where I am (2021) continues her ongoing project documenting shoe treads printed in sidewalk concrete and road paint. Bound in a flocked clamshell box, the book is structured as an accordion fold-out that holds 30 double-sided prints, or 60 unique images. For each image that is immediately visible within the book, a second image remains latent on its reverse. However—tucked into slits on each accordion-fold page—the double sided prints are designed to be removed from the book structure, inviting countless re-arrangements.
Imaging traces of touch that result from movement through the city, Garden-Smith’s photo series trains our looking at our cities’ most pedestrian concrete surfaces, which are comprised primarily of sand. The project lingers on sand—a material we connect deeply with time and the infinite—just as we find ourselves inconceivably but demonstrably on the brink of exhausting this resource.
In Conversation: Shannon Garden-Smith and Stephanie Springgay
Thursday, June 17, 6pm EDT, Online Zoom Webinar
For more information and to register, please visit the event page, here.
Thanks to Kate Murdoch for creating the flocked clamshell boxes and Imagefoundry for printing.
A web-based iteration of this project titled The Hourglass was produced through MOVEMENTS, 2020 presented by Gallery TPW (Toronto) with the support of Partners in Art.
A second iteration of this project was published with the Centre for Experiential Research on the occasion of the exhibition ...5,1,4,1,3—Done! at Pumice Raft (Toronto), 2020.
A first iteration of this project accompanied Garden-Smith’s intervention Upright is fine, but downright is where I am at TIER: The Institute for Endotic Research (Berlin), 2019.