Line Bøhmer Løkken’s new artists’ book Choreography with Potatoes and Flour consists of a pile of folded sheets in various sizes. Pictures in full bleed alternately hide and reveal themselves, in an organic manner the viewer is afforded a multitude of paths through the pages of the book. We find ourselves located in a baking house with an older man baking lefse and flatbread. The principal character - the baker- this is Løkken’s father. Through the primary subject matter of the project, his hands, we are drawn into a floury and tactile universe. These hands work fast and precisely. They know what to do without conscious thought. This bodily knowledge, which we often call silent knowledge, can only be gained through practical experience and training. Perhaps one can say that this hand-carried knowledge is the primordial base for all other knowledge. What we just know.
The book object is soft and light with a porous texture. It does not immediately give you the full understanding of the project. Like an uneven stack of lefse, the floating unbound sheets that make up the book are held together by a wide banderol. The viewer’s hand must be an active participant in the approach when engaging with the images on each page. There is a call to performative action incorporated into the book’s physical design. This helps to enhance the book’s phenomenological potential. The working hand and the seeing hand can meet here, in the fold.
TThe book object is soft and light with a porous texture. It does not immediately give you the full understanding of the project. Like an uneven stack of lefse, the floating unbound sheets that make up the book are held together by a wide banderol. The viewer’s hand must be an active participant in the approach when engaging with the images on each page. There is a call to performative action incorporated into the book’s physical design. This helps to enhance the book’s phenomenological potential. The working hand and the seeing hand can meet here, in the fold.
