Elemer

Dublin Core

Title

Elemer
Shelfmark - 186.ABST.PERLAKI

Subject

Fine Art

Description

Elemer by Marton Perlaki describes a world of chances and combinations, revolving around the manipulation of one central figure before his camera. We do not know who Elemér is – indeed, Perlaki suggests we do not need to know – and as we witness him moving and appearing before the camera he is sculpted, both gesturally and literally. His movements, in turn, elicit the witty, hallucinatory and strange from simple still lives, landscapes and portraits made in Perlaki’s native Hungary.

Perlaki began Elemer after starting to collect cigarette cards – the disposable objects of the early 20th century that contain on one side, a household tip, and on the other, an image. He describes how ‘On first glance, the images look silly and nonsensical, but when flipped over these pictograms suddenly make sense’. This flipping of the card continues throughout Elemer – birds, bubbles, bricks, potatoes and Elemér himself are broken from their contexts, they crash and collide with one another. Within this form of bricolage – this flipping of the cards – Perlaki brings out the absurd from the factual, the delicate from the concrete.

Creator

Marton Perlaki

Publisher

Loose Joints

Date

2016

Format

Section sewn hardcover with coloured boards and silkscreen cover

Book Item Type Metadata

Dimensions

19 × 23 cm

Number of Pages

102 pages

Number of images

54 colour plates

Edition Size

500

Place of Publication

UK

Designer

Loose Joints

Editor

Loose Joints

Website

www.martonperlaki.com

Where to buy

https://loosejoints.biz/collections/out-of-print/products/marton-perlaki

Collection

Citation

Marton Perlaki, “Elemer,” Photo Book Cafe Archive, accessed April 30, 2025, https://www.photobookcafe-archive.co.uk/items/show/186.

Output Formats