This book is about twenty second - hand objects that became the subject of an unusual experiment. Its authors: Alex Julyan, an artist in London, and Bill Gilonis, a musician based in Zurich decided to use the geographical distance between them to ask the question: “What happens when the processes of observation and drawing which are usually concurrent, are undertaken by two people living different places?”. A process was devised whereby the selection of each object was made through a chance operation. The object was translated into a description in one country, and the description translated into drawing in another.

© Alex Julyan & Bill Gilonis
Design by Toby Montague
Photographs by Jo Crowther

Container

Crosscut through one dimension, this object is circular: in the other its more or less rectangular. The top is black and slightly domed whereas the sides and bottom are made of a shiny lightweight material.The top seems fixed to the bottom in two places by very tubular material that is looped ina and out of itself.Two thirds of the way up the side there is a band of the same thin tubular material.The surface of the side is marked by several small indentations.

Unappealing

Interconnecting pliable strips forming circles, ovals or half-circles.Each strip is bristling with functional looking hard shiny fittings and, in one place, a line of small sparkling studs.The object gives off a faint musky odour.

Handmade

Amorphous shape made of a mass of dried organic material bound together.The main structure has four barlike projections jutting out from each corner.A smaller vagualy round form above it is distinguished by three hard, shiny, dark and round blobs; evenly spaced in the form of an inverted triangle.The slightly narrower point where the two forms meet is encircled by a narrow strip of fine, brightly coloured material.

With moving parts (1)