ISSUE 1: SPACE
Featuring new work by 30 contributors including Holly Stevenson, C'est Moi Ce Soir, Anthony Burill and Grandpeople.
Published by Nous Vous Press
Review by Derek Brazell
Something visual that presents itself for your interest needs some kind of space to let the offered images sink in. If they’re not surrounded by text, appreciation comes with fewer distractions around.Waiting for a film to begin at the cinema, standing at the bus stop, or the time between filling the kettle and pouring your drink – these are the moments when you can dip into the bite sized images in Pocket Sized’s appropriately named publication.
The invited artists were asked to contribute imagery on the broad-as-you-like theme of Space. It’s probably a daunting brief to be set, but they have all responded in an interesting way. From the intriguing pages suggesting how to reduce the distance between dots A and B by creating a third dimension (by pulling the centrefold out), to a page packed with jaguars (or are they cheetahs and leopards?).Quite a few of the pictures raise a smile, and my favourite is by two of the Nous Vous collective, Nicolas Burrows and William Edmonds. A man sits casually on a diving board, extending out over what I take to be infinite dark space with two heavenly bodies hovering at a distance. He doesn’t appear too interested in them.
All the images are monochrome, which seems to suit this small (pocket sized, of course) book, and with the title picked out in a slightly shimmering ink it adds up to a publication that’s satisfying to hold and flick through.
Though the majority of the work is drawn, Mark Alcoks photos of night lit empty advertising spaces around Northern towns are a strong response to the theme, the fluorescent tubes waiting to backlight some poster creating a dark loneliness around them.
Space is something you can do anything with, but is often hard to find. As the character in Luke Best’s sequence of images says, ‘I needed some space,’ ‘So I went into the wood. Problem was, I was still there’. Taking Pocket Sized along might have distracted him for a while – it’s done the task for me.
Stockists
London: Lik & Neon Nog Nelly Duff
Leeds 42 New Briggate
www.myspace.com/wearepocketsized
www.nousvous.eu