Glass-Looking
观杯
观杯
2022
artist’s book
limited edition of 30
Ke Xu 许珂
Yue Zhou 周玥
DREAMER FTY 夢廠
100mm*265mm
digital print on paper, bound by clip
artist’s book
limited edition of 30
Ke Xu 许珂
Yue Zhou 周玥
DREAMER FTY 夢廠
100mm*265mm
digital print on paper, bound by clip
Looking Glass means "mirror". After Lewis Carroll's book Through the Looking-Glass was published in 1871, the term “Looking Glass” came to mean “the opposite of normal or uncanny.”
The title of this book, Glass-Looking, is an invented word based on the structure of “Bird-Watching”, emphasizing the act of observation with glass as the subject. Glasses in this book are taken from IKEA product photos and are presented at the original dimensions as stated in the product listing. Ke Xu and Yue Zhou, as observers, retrospectively observe the triple translations between the actual glass, the product photo and the image in the book. In this process, paper carries the container function of the glass, and the transparent property of the glass penetrates the pages. A visual game flows between two and three dimensions, realised by flipping the pages.
This is not a catalogue about glasses, it is more about seeing and cognition, and the implied lacuna in between, this subtle shift of focus to cognitive bias echoes "the opposite of normal or uncanny" view that can be found through the "Looking Glass”.
Looking Glass有“镜子”之意。 刘易斯·卡罗尔的《爱丽丝镜中奇遇记》(Through the Looking-Glass)于 1871 年出版后，Looking Glass也有了“与正常或预期不同”的意味。
本书标题Glass-Looking(观杯)则是基于Bird-Watching(观鸟)的结构再造的词语，强调以杯子为主体的观察与凝视。书中的杯子均取自宜家产品照片，并以实际高度呈现。许珂和周玥作为观察员，在杯子实物、产品照片与本书的图像之间追溯观看的三重转换。在此过程中，纸张承载了杯子的容器功能，杯子的透明属性于纸张之间互相渗透，一场在二维与三维之间流动的视觉游戏得以在翻阅中实现。
这不是一本关于杯子的图录，它更关乎于观看与认知，及其间所隐含的，这种微妙的转变/认知偏差呼应了“Looking Glass”所象征的“与正常或预期不同”的意味。