Is This Me? – Tipo.pt

Title: Is This Me?
Author: Isabel Baraona
Publisher: Isabel Baraona
Dimensions: closed 12X17 cm; open 192X17 cm closed 6,69X4,72 in; open 75,59X6,69 in
Number of Pages: n.a.
Edition: 250 copies
Publishing Date: 2009 (September)
Place: Cascais, Portugal
Dep. Legal / ISBN: n.a.
Media: Offset, colour. Printed on paper IOR 120gr.
Synopsis: It is a book with a peculiar shape, an accordion fold without a binding. When closed, the book shows two drawings of the same character whose gender is undefined. On one side, the figure is alone on top of a little stool, his eyes low and clearly rejecting the incitement of the other characters (at the right hand side) that call him, outstretching their arms and motioning their hands. On the other side, we see the silhouette of the character cropped from a black and not uniform background. Although there’s no perfect symmetry, both these attitudes of the character are related to the theme of the book: “is this me?” is the question written on the upper edge of the page with the figure on top of the little stool, while at the opposite of the fold, in two pages filled in black, we can read “is this me, is it me?” Neither this nor the other questions noted throughout the book have a clear answer, with only one entry that somehow works (ironically) as a reply: “either good, either bad, nor yes or no, life is great and grey”. The remaining drawings depict mostly festive and pagan scenes; the characters meet and comply with a ritual, parade and hide partially and clumsily under canopies, into groups that resemble a cortege or procession. However, the primal decor is also that of the underworld - chthonic - that breaks out, scrambling the perception of inside and outside / inside and out. (Translation of the text provided by Isabel Baraona to Tipo.pt)
Author's Website:http://www.isabelbaraona.com
Publisher's Website:(Português) http://www.isabelbaraona.com
Notes and Collections: This edition is available at: - the Gulbenkian Foundation Library, Lisbon; at the School of Fine Arts and Design of Caldas da Rainha, Portugal. - at Centre de la Gravure et de l’Image imprimée, La Louvière, Belgium; - as well at the Tate archives, in London, U.K.