
Nihilartikel
- Publisher
- Perimeter Editions
- Year
- 2022
- ISBN
- 978-1-922545-10-7
- Specifications
- Coptic bind softcover
31.7 x 24 cm
128 pages
700 copies
Design by Paul Mylecharane and Kim Mumm Hansen
The German term nihilartikel describes the practice of inserting intentional errors, falsities or fictitious entries into reference texts for the purpose of later identifying plagiarism. Taking this somewhat elusive practice as its subtext, Izabela Pluta's major new book approaches photography and its central quandaries of authenticity and representation from a series of unsettled and dynamic vantages. The Polish-born, Australian-based artist forges a syntax using photographs gleaned from aerial drone footage and moving-image stills filmed underwater in Malta and Japan, and traditional darkroom prints made with out-of-print oceanic maps. Ancient surfaces and architectures ripple with evidence of their deep time; boulders emerge from the blue depths; cartography collapses in on itself. Pluta depicts the ocean and its surrounding landscapes as a fallible and contested space where official accounts are called into question.