Alex Borgen
Open Range: Mountain Passage
2015, Artist Book: Handmade abaca paper, ink, graphite, transfer print, thread
12in x 5in x 1 in (closed), 12in x 36in (open)
$500
The body that moves with intention through its landscape is “an extension of the terrain that sustains it,” as Andre Lepecki suggests. I discovered my body as an extension of the landscape during a two-month backcountry mountain bike trek along 2000-miles of the Continental Divide Route from Montana to New Mexico. I was inspired to produce a multi-media body of work, titled Open Range; Mountain Passage, which includes a sound piece, manuscript, and an artist book by the same name.
Made with handmade paper pigmented with soil and gold pearlescence pigment, I created a sculptural book that resembles the mountain terrain along my journey. The book has been aged by crumpling and rubbing the handmade paper, and is reminiscent of my body’s journey—worn and forever changed due to the experience. Essayist, Rebecca Solnit acutely writes, “Reading with one’s feet is real in a way reading with one’s eyes alone is not. And sometimes the map is the territory.” The accordion folded book intentionally mimics old maps of parchment, and is a way I could present a non-linear story of the experience using words, locations, and points of topography as texture marked on the handmade paper.