Artemisa
Blues.
Artemisa Blues is a cyanotype artist book built from photographs made in May 2016 at the home of a woman rolling cigars in Artemisa, Cuba — her son beside her, holding the finished bundles. Four scenes of the encounter — hands, tobacco, the rolling table — printed in sunlight onto a single strip of cotton, rolled and held in the original Romeo y Julieta cigar tube it travels in.
Like the cigar it borrows its case from, the rolled book is bound by a hand-made rice paper ring stamped with the studio's Chinese chop. A 1:1 unique piece, currently part of the available archive — the same image that began as a photograph is now a physical artifact that can be held, unrolled, re-rolled, returned to its tube.
Held in the
hand.
A single strip of cotton, sized to the encounter, sized to the cigar tube. Coated in cyanotype chemistry and printed in sunlight — book produced in February 2024 from photographs made in May 2016 at the home of the subjects in Artemisa, Cuba.
Four scenes of the encounter printed in sequence on a single, unbroken strip of cotton — the table, the tobacco, the wrap, the seal. The strip is rolled and slipped into the original Romeo y Julieta aluminum cigar tube it was reverse-engineered around, and bound by a hand-made rice paper ring stamped with the studio's Chinese chop. The tube is the case, the gallery, and the work's mode of travel; the chop is its signature.
1:1 unique piece. Part of the available archive. Documentation video accompanies the work. Available for acquisition, institutional placement, and exhibition loan.
Photographs: Artemisa, Cuba, May 2016. Book produced: February 2024. 1:1 unique piece, currently part of the available archive. Documentation video accompanies the work as AV05 · Artemisa Blues.