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Using a methodology that both parallels and gently ridicules the concept of stock photo agencies, New Catalogue (artists Luke Batten and Jonathan Sadler) has created a series of original editions that tap into popular culture while expanding on traditional photographic genres. This book, their first, examines elements of American iconography that are at once hilarious and vaguely unsettling: “Big Ten Co-Eds with Ski Masks,” “Preppy Girls with BB Guns,” and “The Lost Cheerleaders” – each of which hints at a subconscious desire for danger in a sterile suburban setting. With a degree of ambiguity, this work allows the images to be molded, contextualized, and ascribed narratives in hundreds of ways to suit the end-user or client (if one is to maintain the corporate analogy) who could be a journalist, advertiser or contemporary art collector. Printed in a first edition of only 500 casebound copies, this beautifully produced book will sell out quickly. Batten and Sadler’s work is included in numerous public and private collections, and has recently been shown at the International Biennale of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Prague, Czech Republic and at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. |
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