A Theatre of Shapes
DEUTSCH
A Theatre of Shapes
Sarah Boris
September 5 - October 5, 2024
Opening⎢Thurs. September 5, 18 - 21 hr
Tues. + Wed. 11 - 15 hr / Thurs. + Fri. 11 - 18 hr / Sat. 11 - 15 hr
einBuch.haus / Florastr. 61, 13187 Berlin
© Sarah Boris
On the occasion of launching the new edition of Le Théâtre Graphique, einBuch.haus invited Sarah Boris to showcase her artists’ book together with corresponding artworks. Le Théâtre Graphique is an artists’ book born from the happenstance of shifting shapes and colours.
In 2015, Sarah was invited for a solo show in the main theatre of the seaside town Le Havre, France as part of Une Saison Graphique festival. For this exhibition, which she titled Le Théâtre Graphique, she made a screenprint featuring the sun and the sea. She then produced a site specific artwork (related to the theatre) which was the inspiration for a second screenprint. The fortuitous flipping of the waves as part of the artist process finally revealed a theatre curtain.This analogy between shape and form with a simple change of colour prompted Sarah to make a book which is now in its third edition.
The exhibition at einBuch.haus will include the two original screenprints from her 2015 exhibition as well as new artworks which Sarah created in response to the third edition of Le Théâtre Graphique. Next to the artworks presented in the exhibition space, other wordless books by Sarah will be presented in the book shop space, such as Rainbow 1 and Rainbow 2 as well as her most recent book After the Rain. The display highlights commonalities between the artists' books, which draw on symbols, colours and shapes. This is the first time that all the books have been presented in one place.
Books have been forming an important basis in the work of artist Sarah Boris and have become a starting point, continuation or end point to a project. Some of her books have led to sculptures and drawings (such as Rainbow), while others were informed by screen prints. Each book has its own story, sometimes triggered by a pair of artworks, sometimes born from the connection to a symbol leading to new artworks, sometimes born from another book. Book making has undeniably become a seminal form of expression in the body of the artist’s work.
Sarah Boris
Sarah Boris is an artist living and working in London. She is also frequently found in France, where she has been participating in several artist residencies in recent years. Boris’ practice encompasses sculpture, drawing, printmaking, collage, and painting. Her work explores various topics, from climate change to language, drawing parallels to her bi-cultural upbringing through linguistic elements. Her projects often emerge from lived experiences or are connected to specific contexts.
Her public art commission, the Heart Bench series (2021), demonstrates how she transforms a universal symbol into a functional sculpture. One of her most iconic artworks is the Fragile UK Flag (2015), where she re-created the Union Jack using fragile tape and blue paper. This piece was later produced on a larger scale using cloth and has been seen in several marches in London since 2015 and featured in several publications including the contemporary art magazine Elephant. Her books include Rainbow, Global Warming Anyone?, Le Théâtre Graphique and After the Rain most of which are part of artists’ book collections.
Her work has been exhibited at the Design Museum in London and is part of collections at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the New York Centre for Book Arts, FRAC Normandie, MAK Vienna, artothèque Bel Ordinaire, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and the Jan Michalski Foundation in Switzerland. Boris is preparing for her first institutional solo exhibition in May 2025 at Le Bel Ordinaire, where she will present a body of modular artworks ranging from sculpture to drawing.
einBuch #35
Le Théâtre Graphique
Sarah Boris
Published by Generation Press, 2023
163 x 185 mm portrait, 72 pages
5 Pantones Offset, Foiled + Die cut cover
Edition of 200
Le Théâtre Graphique (The Graphic Theatre) is a wordless flipbook where the waves of the sea transform into a theatre curtain. It is also a metaphor for the rising sea levels and the ambivalence between man-made and natural spaces. The book presents a theatre of shapes and colours. It draws correlations between forms. Initially self-published in 2015 and exhibited as part of Boris’ solo exhibition at Une Saison Graphique, a festival of art and design, the book was published as a limited edition in 2016, which is currently out of print, this is the third edition, revised and expanded. The first edition of the book was acquired by the Stedelijk Amsterdam.