OMSKBOOK - further details

An OMSK event unfolds across numerous rooms, in a building which is neither a gallery, nor a cinema or theatre, so that both artist and audience find themselves in direct encounter with one another. OMSK has taken this element of the live event into the space of the printed book, and given each artist a set of blank pages. Documentation of performances coincides with instructions for use, riffs on the cinema, comic book drawings, art as anatomy, and musings on the presence of the artist. The publication also offers a critical overview of a dynamic period of change within multi-disciplinary art practice, with guest contributions from Tracey Warr and Helen de Witt exploring artist-led collectives and happenings. A DVD features some of the most exciting work in moving image from the UK and beyond; and on its flip side is a CD packed with cutting edge sound and music compered by Rob da Bank. In addition, OMSKBOOK includes a Do-It-Yourself guide for artists and curators to propagate future platforms for experimental art.

• Like a magician’s cave, an alchemist’s laboratory or an artist’s studio, the OMSK space is about          process, development, engagement, but not about completion.
  - Helen de Witt in Pretentious Proclamation, pp.30-35, OMSKBOOK 
  

• OMSK events are emblematic of how artists deal with non-gallery and non-theatrical environments – work shown in these raucous or unprecious contexts has to create its own space and its own terms ...these artist led events are often the antecedents (or perhaps the antidotes) for art schools.  There is an anarchic trying out that ought to be going on in art school (but rarely does).
  - Tracey Warr in Awkward Art Party, pp. 110-114, OMSKBOOK
  
  

• OMSK... is a set of ethics, a shifty set, by dint of its nature.  OMSK can be anything. Rather than say OMSK is punk, you might say about something – “Oh, that’s so OMSK...That frock’s so OMSK.”
  - Sharon Smith, The Fido the Dog Debate, pp. 75-82, OMSKBOOK
  

OMSKBOOK includes... The Rules of Quartet Electronishe, Inverted Comics by Sissu Tarka, a cut-out OMSK Magazine from Paul Elliott, The Max Factory Will from the Max Factory, Winter Summer: The Class Photograph 2007 by Mairead McClean, A Naïve Dance Masterclass from Matt Rudkin, yournamelitupinneonlights from Grace Surman, The Pregnancy Performance from Dot Howard, Suppose by Annis Joslin, Self Portrait As HeartFeltMySullen Heart by Andrew Kötting, The Communist Manifesto (2006) from Allsopp & Weir, Woodrow Kernohan - plus sound and film on the CD & DVD.

OMSKBOOK: a testing ground for film, video, live art, sound and mayhem
ISBN: 978-0-9556112-0-9
Price: £14.99
Paperback
200mm by 200mm
152 pages, two colours
DVD/CD Dual Format Disc
DVD running time 120 minutes/Audio CD running time 60 minutes
Edition of 1000
Published by OMSK
Design: Anita Steinstad
Editor: Clare Moloney

 

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