“As already, we shall have a vast Chaos
and confusion of books, we are oppressed
with them, our eyes ache with reading,
our fingers with turning.”
Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621
___________
“You will have some coffee?”
It’s a bit in those malicious terms that Blake
Hart-Wilson, under Lili Murphy-Johnson’s
snide gaze, invites us to have a look at their
film; in which a coffee table specially designed
to take beverages, some books carelessly
placed on top of it, undergoes the worst outrages.
The worrying light may be worthy of a film noir.
Cinema, precisely, is the fruit of writing, of literature.
It’s thanks to this age-old match that this art - even
if it’s also an industry - navigates in the world of ideas.
Is Coffee Table Books an exception to the rule?
Almost!
By the artists’ own admission, no written document
worthy of its name exists; only a few guidelines
exchanged among themselves, a few sketches
carelessly immortalised on a sheet of paper,
a few reflections, ideas.
Finally, what do they offer us? A still life of books?
A film all together aesthetic and provocative?
Partly.
For to answer this question, it is necessary to take
a little leap into the past to understand their likely
motivations.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, some intellectuals
took a stand against exponential book publishing.
According to them, this technique questions the
value of the works themselves.
In the 20th century, nazis proceeded with
book-burning. More recently still, at the beginning
of the 21st century, the United States censored
several thousands of literary works.
This approach aims to warn us. But not only.
Tinted with a rare violence, through image and
sound, or even filth verging on scatology thus
causing disgust, these books cannot, in fact,
be consumed or erased. Even damaged, they
stay here, still very present, proud, under
our gaze.
Ideas, whatever they may be, cannot die.
Marc Fassiaty
Translated by Aurélia Robertson
To view the film: blake@blakehartwilson.com
With Lili Murphy-Johnson
Coffee, Table, Books 2024
Single channel video, 4K (4:3), colour, sound
7 minutes 26 seconds
Edition of 3 + 2 AP
Coffee, Table, Books 2024
Single channel video, 4K (4:3), colour, sound
7 minutes 26 seconds
Edition of 3 + 2 AP