BOOK: Convergences

‘Convergences’ was created in response to an invitation from the artist Sharon Kivland as part of one of Leeds College of Art’s annual ‘Library Interventions’ projects. Kivland invited fellow artists to spend some time in Leeds Library reading on her behalf – a playful ‘master-slave’ relationship – and present the ‘knowledge gained’ in the form of an artwork.

In an attempt to read ‘on behalf’ of the artist, Chris took three of Kivland’s artworks and began to read subjects surrounding those, choosing books that the artist herself may have encountered. The resulting journey became a text; a story about art and about reading. Each page features two texts; the first being the story and the second (presented as side-notes) being details of the writing process (exposing the date and location that where the text was developed). This dual narrative was designed to make the reader constantly aware of the writing process in order to make them acutely aware of their own act of reading.

Artist’s Statement:  “The idea of reading of behalf of a fellow artist seemed from the outset like a big responsibility: What might Sharon chose to read herself? Would she be offended by my assumed choices?  I hoped to find clues to her interests in her own artworks so I inspected three projects to see what threads I could tease from them. ‘Convergences’ is a small book, which resulted from a long journey. The narrative I created seemed simple and seamless, so I wove in the side-notes to expose the writing process, to make the reader think more about the writer who was also reading.”



Specifications: A5 pamphlet, 20 pages, full-colour.