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1st prize Prix
de Rome
(artist's book, 1 copy, 3000+ pages, 19x27cm standing)
The
nomination for the final of the Prix de Rome visual art competition triggered a 3-months long telephone book project. The starting point was my fascination with overhearing other people's phone talks. Prompted by the English language I chose London's Leicester Square as my
base for installing a listening-device in a phone booth.
My plans were upset due to the interference of undercover police who swiftly discovered my eavesdropping intentions. As taping into strangers’ phone
conversations became undoable the I went onto a mission of film library re-search of thousands of film- and theatre scripts
and scenario’s, which included phone dialogues. These scripted conversations were
later to form a ‘telephone book’ directory of phone
dialogues - instead of phone numbers.
Using just one side of the conversations, cataloguing them in a way the original Yellow
Pages are divided; then photo-illustrating them with
images and archived works, I produced a 3000+ page yellow
artist's book. It resembles the classic British Yellow Pages, photocopied - mostly
in black & white - on yellow paper reserved worldwide uniquely
for the Yellow Pages.
The
book won me the 1st prize Prix de Rome and was then
exhibited at Arti et Amicitiae where it was stolen during the show’s
private view. After being found & returned it would also be shown at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam and at W139 in Amsterdam, a/o. LISTEN® THE VISITOR'S GUIDE
The
Best of…Listen®" was a 64-page miniature version of "Listen® The
Telephone Book". It was intended as a supplement to the Dutch ‘Yellow Pages’ and was to
be a commercial give-away publication for the Dutch National Telecommunication Company. |
