New Zealand Photobook of the Year 2017 - Commended Finalist

Abstract or Summary

Mimetic started out as being a stripped back sampler and playful reference to the artist’s previous publication, From Certainty to Doubt. It was decided to expand the scope and introduce some of Purdom’s process/research as an alternate journey within the publication, along with the addition of new work. There are three different stocks in the publication. The coated stock being a metaphor for the ‘final selected, articulated work of the artist’ — an idea that is fluid and contentious as some of the photographer’s process work ends up on these pages. The Cyber Green stock references the outrageous notion of the fluorescent camouflage vest or the absurd synthetic qualities that manufactured ‘organic’ forms imitate (the plastic leaf or faux rock) or the garishly dyed sprayed-on grass seeds. The uncoated stock and reduced format was purely about the random and poetic quality of research and artistic process. These pages do not have folios and the publication is unbound, suggesting they can be re-organised — referencing the creative process of research and its interplay with the finished work. Indeed, these pages also contain some of the artist’s earlier finished work, causing the viewer to think about the role of self-referencing and the artist’s own habitual exploration of memesis. The loose-leaf quality of these pages also reminded us of the artist’s research: file boxes were supplied to us filled with photocopied military documents, newspaper and magazine clippings, Google location maps, Polaroids, test prints, inkjet prints of downloaded content and other such ephemera that influenced the aesthetic and conceptual direction of the project.  The cover is emblazoned with an ISBN number which mimics the pseudo-science and categorisation of the military content that the artist procured during his research. It playfully manipulates the conventional expectation that the photographic content should be represented in some form on the publication cover.