Painful Singularities

Painful Singularities is Jimmy Robert's second artist book. Three black-and-white photographs of a man, which might have been taken with a distance of years, are standing central to Painful Singularities. Starting from the man's more and more self-confident posing in front of the camera, Jimmy Robert analyses the question of representation. He has written a series of short texts, which are grouped around the images like a loose net of poetic comments on memories and pain, sensibility, masculinity and loneliness.

In his collages, drawings, films, videos and performances, Jimmy Robert has dealt with the represen- tational power of images of masculinity. In this spirit/sense, Painful Singularities is a literary extension of his exhibition manifold centrefold at the project space white light.

More a collector’s treasure than a book, this exquisite combination of found photographs and beautifully poetic texts is printed on newsprintlike paper, folded, enclosed in a custom cardboard envelope and published in a signed edition of only 300. Brussels-based Jimmy Robert’s second artist book, Painful Singularities explores ideas of memories and pain, masculinity and loneliness, sexuality and sensuality. Throughout his career, in collages, drawings, films, videos and performances, Robert has dealt with the representational power of images of masculinity. Writes the artist, “Desire is gnarled: no more fever, no more limits, no more horizons, just some residual longing in the space between blue and deep blue.” Edition of 300, signed and numbered.