Leah Oates ~ New York

PARADURA
By Leah Oates
Brooklyn: Rhino Press, 2003 / 2004. Variant Series.

5.78 x 9"; 18 pages. Digital prints on Rive Lightweight paper. Pamphlet bound.

Leah Oates: "This body of work explores the passage of time and the fragmentation of memory during the moment of perceiving. In each moment hundreds of small gestures are expressed, motions taken, words spoken, sounds heard, and images recorded. I use the impression of these moments by condensing, grouping, double exposing and blurring images and found objects, and thus have constructed a more fluid and emotionally charged interpretation of passing time as it is disappearing. By presenting a fuller and more abstract recording of perception and emotion, my photos, book, and sculptures capture the wonder, confusion, and fullness of the whole moment.

"My work begins in a specific location gathering fragments of sound, image, smell, and emotional response to environment and space. I collect and accumulate many images and found objects based on time spent in a specific location. From this collection process I make a series of artists' books, digital prints, c-prints, light boxes, installations and small scale sculpture until I have shaped a defined body of work. This process of working through an idea is similar to alchemy as I let the work and my research guide me."
$40

transgression
By Leah Oates
Chicago: Rhino Press, (1999). Edition of 500.

8 x 5.25"; 24 pages. Offset printed and spiral bound. Single folded leaves of UV Ultra; each folded leaf contains a card. Each folded page contains quotations from politicians, authors, critics, and feminists on gender themes. Each card has on one side images of the ocean, on the other images illustrating differences between a woman and a man.

Introduction: "Each image within each page/envelope should be viewed outside of the envelope. When one has finished viewing the image it should be returned to the original page/envelope."

Leah Oates: "Transgressions investigates language versus being. The text, or language, is a cacophony of individual voices stating views on gender difference and forms a wall of language and voices. In contrast, the corresponding images of the male and female body are quiet and unbiased, focusing on similarity rather than difference and in this way cross existing boundaries. On the back of the images of the body are images of water which represent human consciousness which is genderless."
$50 (a few copies remaining)

Disclosed
By Leah Oates
Brooklyn: Leah Oates, (1997). Edition of 500.

6.5 x 4.5"; 16 pages, offset printed and pamphlet bound.

No title, no colophon, no explanation. Excerpts of letters purportedly written by females to females (see below) from which we can draw generalizations, or not.

Leah Oates: "Disclosed deals with letter writing between girls and women. As a young girl I had many pen pals and friends I wrote to that I had kept and then uncovered to reread. These letters deal with female concerns such as motherhood, family and relationships, and a specific way in which women communicate which begins early in development. Also, Disclosed also deals with what is said and unsaid between women."
g$40 (five copies remaining)

Durations 4
By Leah Oates
Brooklyn: Leah Oates, 2001. Edition of 5.

3.5 x 3.5"; 6 pages. Accordion book. Images from a contact sheet.

Leah Oates: "I explore the course of time and the disintegration of memory. In every moment hundreds of images are recorded in our minds. I use the impression of these moments. I believe that memories change with time. Latent memories get a fuller and more abstract reading with time."
(SOLD)