Lucas Samaras, “Book 4″, Wood, Nails, Needles, Glass, Beads
Lucas Samaras is a Greek artist born in Kastoria, Greece in 1936. He studied at Rutgers University on a scholarship, where he met artists Alan Kaprow and George Segal. Samaras participated in Kaprow’s “Happenings” and posed for Segal’s plaster sculptures. His work included painting, sculpture, performance art, and photography. Samaras worked with multi-media collages, and, by manipulating the wet dyes in Polaroid photographic film, created a series he called “Photo-Transformations”.
“Book 4” is a multifaceted object and a miniature world in istelf. Although it includes eight fictional narratives writen by the artist and surprises such as pop-ups, pockets, interlocking layers, foldouts, and hidden pamphlets, it is not a storybook. Encrusted with needles and shards of glass in addition to brightly colored beads and pieces of mirror, it is difficult if not dangerous to handle, guarding the secrets within.
Reblogged with thanks to https://annleckie.tumblr.com