“Amusing and interesting, the collection points to a highly welcome independent publisher†- Dazed and Confused
“An intriguing collectionâ€- Art Review
“Original and unconventional†- GQ Italy
Showcasing new talent, The Pocko Collection is a series of 96 pocket-sized visual books that merge art, design, photography, fashion and music within the fuzzy borders of contemporary culture. The books are released in sets of five every six months. 96 illustrated coloured pages per paperback title. £4.99 each book, £19.99 box set with 5 titles. First set of 5 books available October 2001. Next set out April 2002. Pocko Series 1:
The first set reveals: political leaders with sinister smiles in Power Smile, fractured table-football figures in Tablehead subterranean travellers in Yamanote, and stylish felt-pen characters in He said, She said. To mark the launch of this new project, an additional title will be released: Dear, Thank You, Yours Sincerely, a collection of the artist’s rejection letters. This is a launch pad for the entire collection, which throws a razor sharp, irreverent glance at contemporary urban reality. Each volume in the series is hijacked by a rising star, who then turns its 96 pages into an expression of their individual creative obsession.
Taken as a whole, the collection displays an extraordinary view of the everyday: urban, unconventional, witty and inspiring.
NO ARTISTS WERE DAMAGED IN THE SPONSORING OF THIS PUBLICATION
Pocko was established in 1999 by three Royal College of Art graduates: Nicola Schwartz, Iñigo AsÃs and Olga Norman. As well as being involved in publishing, Pocko runs a creative agency with 13 other professionals from diverse backgrounds in fashion, film, video, advertising, editorial, music and the web. Their clients include Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan, Aspesi, Versace, Lush and Burberry. The Pocko Collection is supported by urban fashion legend Diesel, who will be stocking the books in addition to bookshops
00.Dear Thank You Yours Sincerely
This book is a collection of 77 letters received by the artist in reply to his incessant applications over a period of three years. From these most prosaic documents a kind of bittersweet poetry emerges, a sustained and repetitive meditation on the politics and the poetics of rejection.
Author: Atsuhide Ito (b. 1966, Shizoka) is a sensitive and stubborn Japanese artist and anthropologist, who lives in London and works predominantly in the area of painting and performance. He drags his daughter to exhibitions as often as she drags him to playgrounds.
1.Yamanote
Iñigo Asis’s photographs, taken on Tokyo’s circle line, exploit the sense of ‘curtains opening’, when the unsuspecting passengers momentarily confront the waiting photographer. More than a study in urban existentialism, this is also a sociological document; a subterranean investigation into the modes of appearance and the behaviour of Japanese salary men in the most routinely awkward and uncomfortable social conditions.
Author: Iñigo Asis (b. 1969, Madrid) is a photographer who has published widely in Europe and Japan. Trained as a fine artist, he found, shortly after leaving the Royal College of Art, that publishing, fashion and advertising were more appealing grounds to develop his ideas. Recently he edited Big magazine’s issue 29, dedicated to Spanish popular culture. ISBN: 1-903977-01-0
2.Powersmile
Privately collected by two German teenagers in the 70’s, the press-photos of US Senators and Gov
ernors in ‘Power-Smile’ are a miniature archive of a period when media-friendliness became the establishment’s key survival strategy, evidence of the then-emerging reality that a good PR shot is worth a thousands votes. These are yesterday’s men but the same rules apply today: whatever happens, just keep on smiling.
Author: Adam Lowe (b.1957, Oxford), is a curious mix of artist and curator who works between Madrid and London. Previous exhibitions have included Noise (University of Cambridge), and ‘Manga: Comic Strip books from Japan’- the first British show devoted to the history of Manga. His artworks have been exhibited around the world and were the subject of a major exhibition at the Russian State Musem, St. Petersburg in 2000. ISBN: 1-903977-03-7 Images and/or review copies available on request. For further information, contact Iñigo Asis at: Pocko Editions 39 Munro Mews, London W10 5RZ T+ F: 020 8964 9580 E: inigo@pocko.com
3.Tablehead
Schwartz’s macro photographic images achieve the transformation of the mundane and often overlooked into the powerfully symbolic. ‘Tablehead’ is a kind of travelogue, a document on the appearance of ‘players’ in six different countries, and the pictures themselves are replete with subliminal signifiers of national difference. His tour of miniature pitches delivers a series of startling, forensically detailed close-ups of looming, disfigured, proto-human ‘faces’.
Author: Nicola Schwartz (b.1970, Milan) is a photographer and video artist. A Royal College of Art graduate, he has exhibited and published widely in Europe, Japan and North America. He currently combines art commissions and commercial collaborations with lecturing video art at Richmond College in London. ISBN: 1-903977-02-9
4.He Said, She Said
These unassuming snippets of typed dialogue and ultra-naïve felt-pen drawings of stylish young people, set against a background of lined school notepaper, presents us with a catalogue of poignant, and often hilarious, vignettes. Using these pared down elements she creates a rich and affecting comedy of manners, an extended discourse on the nature – and more often than not the failure – of communication between friends and lovers.
Author: Daisy de Villeneuve (b. 1975, London) studied Fashion and Fine Art in New York City and Paris, earning a B.F.A from Parsons School of Design in 1999. Since 1989, she kept track of what was happening in her life by writing in day-journals and keeping a record of conversations with friends. ISBN: 1-903977-04-5 Images and/or review copies available on request. For further information, contact Iñigo Asis at: Pocko Editions 39 Munro Mews, London W10 5RZ T+ F: 020 8964 9580 E: inigo@pocko.com
This press release is also available as Pocko Collection Series 1 PDF
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