Burned Books is a series of laser-cut sculptures and drawings, including books incised with evocative, often ironic, words and phrases, and drawings made from industrial patterns. The works in this series explore the relationship between transformations in technology and economic shifts: expensive reference books point to their own technological obsoleteness in our digital era even as they retain a trace of their former signification as containers of knowledge and prestige; telephone books anachronistically physicalize a state of connectedness and incessant communication now both provided and invisibilized by Google. In burning these books with word and symbols, I restore their aura as precious objects: this time, though, in the context of the artwork.
Works from this series have been exhibited at Eyebeam, New York and Postmasters Gallery, New York, and have been documented in the New Yorker and covered in Art in America. A video interview on the creation of Old News can be found here.
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<div class="fg-item fg-type-image fg-idle"><figure class="fg-item-inner"><a href="https://www.mandiberg.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/old-news-test.jpg" data-caption-title="Old News, 2009. Laser cut paper, accumulating stack, table. 20 x 18 x 18 inches. Every day, a fresh copy of The New York Times with the words "old news" cut onto it is delivered to the gallery, a stack accumulating over the course of the exhibition." data-attachment-id="2159" data-rel="lightbox" title="Old News, 2009. Laser cut paper, accumulating stack, table. 20 x 18 x 18 inches. Every day, a fresh copy of The New York Times with the words "old news" cut onto it is delivered to the gallery, a stack accumulating over the course of the exhibition." data-type="image" class="fg-thumb"><span class="fg-image-wrap"><img title="Old News, 2009. Laser cut paper, accumulating stack, table. 20 x 18 x 18 inches. Every day, a fresh copy of The New York Times with the words "old news" cut onto it is delivered to the gallery, a stack accumulating over the course of the exhibition." width="800" height="534" class="skip-lazy fg-image" data-src-fg="https://www.mandiberg.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/old-news-test.jpg" src="data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%22800%22%20height%3D%22534%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20800%20534%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E" loading="eager"></span><span class="fg-image-overlay"></span></a><figcaption class="fg-caption"><div class="fg-caption-inner"><div class="fg-caption-title">Old News, 2009. Laser cut paper, accumulating stack, table. 20 x 18 x 18 inches. Every day, a fresh copy of The New York Times with the words "old news" cut onto it is delivered to the gallery, a stack accumulating over the course of the exhibition.</div></div></figcaption></figure><div class="fg-loader"></div></div><div class="fg-item fg-type-image fg-idle"><figure class="fg-item-inner"><a href="https://www.mandiberg.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/old-news2.jpg" data-caption-title="Old News, 2009. Laser cut paper, accumulating stack, table. 20 x 18 x 18 inches. Every day, a fresh copy of The New York Times with the words "old news" cut onto it is delivered to the gallery, a stack accumulating over the course of the exhibition." data-attachment-id="2158" data-rel="lightbox" title="Old News, 2009. Laser cut paper, accumulating stack, table. 20 x 18 x 18 inches. Every day, a fresh copy of The New York Times with the words "old news" cut onto it is delivered to the gallery, a stack accumulating over the course of the exhibition." data-type="image" class="fg-thumb"><span class="fg-image-wrap"><img title="Old News, 2009. Laser cut paper, accumulating stack, table. 20 x 18 x 18 inches. Every day, a fresh copy of The New York Times with the words "old news" cut onto it is delivered to the gallery, a stack accumulating over the course of the exhibition." width="800" height="534" class="skip-lazy fg-image" data-src-fg="https://www.mandiberg.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/old-news2.jpg" src="data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%22800%22%20height%3D%22534%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20800%20534%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E" loading="eager"></span><span class="fg-image-overlay"></span></a><figcaption class="fg-caption"><div class="fg-caption-inner"><div class="fg-caption-title">Old News, 2009. Laser cut paper, accumulating stack, table. 20 x 18 x 18 inches. Every day, a fresh copy of The New York Times with the words "old news" cut onto it is delivered to the gallery, a stack accumulating over the course of the exhibition.</div></div></figcaption></figure><div class="fg-loader"></div></div><div class="fg-item fg-type-image fg-idle"><figure class="fg-item-inner"><a href="https://www.mandiberg.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/old-news-mockup.jpg" data-caption-title="Old News, 2009. Laser cut paper, accumulating stack, table. 20 x 18 x 18 inches. Every day, a fresh copy of The New York Times with the words "old news" cut onto it is delivered to the gallery, a stack accumulating over the course of the exhibition." data-attachment-id="2157" data-rel="lightbox" title="Old News, 2009. Laser cut paper, accumulating stack, table. 20 x 18 x 18 inches.
Every day, a fresh copy of The New York Times with the words "old news" cut onto it is delivered to the gallery, a stack accumulating over the course of the exhibition." data-type="image" class="fg-thumb"><img title="Old News, 2009. Laser cut paper, accumulating stack, table. 20 x 18 x 18 inches.
Every day, a fresh copy of The New York Times with the words "old news" cut onto it is delivered to the gallery, a stack accumulating over the course of the exhibition." width="800" height="534" class="skip-lazy fg-image" data-src-fg="https://www.mandiberg.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/old-news-mockup.jpg" src="data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%22800%22%20height%3D%22534%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20800%20534%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E" loading="eager"> Every day, a fresh copy of The New York Times with the words "old news" cut onto it is delivered to the gallery, a stack accumulating over the course of the exhibition.
