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Jake Tilson Studio projectswords

THE TERMINATOR LINE
1987-1990

media>
three-dimensional collages, dioramas, a book, editioned collages, a film.

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Terminator Line:
dividing line between night and day. 		This project grew from a narrative text Tilson started writing in 1984. Over a period of five years he visited the East Village in New York during different seasons; walking the streets, into shops, bars and restaurants below 14th Street and between Third Avenue and Alphabet City. As well as  helping the New York Sanitation Deptartment empty their dumpsters and clear their streets he took photographs, video and cine-film, taped radio and TV stations, and wrote. During these years, as he got to know the material he had collected, the work made from this research formed into sculpture, collage, publications and audio-visual works. Any preciousness attached to the objects vanished with time and new associations appeared between them. Each material suggested their own singular solution. These materials were further extended by treating them on xerox machines and video printers. The objects were primarily metal and plastic: hardware, used light fittings, electrical wire, door handles, nuts, bolts, screws, metal mouldings and signage, either found on the streets or bought in second-hand electrical stores on 2nd Avenue and hardware stores on Canal Street.
These varied media allowed for very different forms of expression, both in content and form. By intent a postcard can be as much a work of art as  a painting.

The nature of cities appears in the smallest evidence.

 Slice of the Action - samizdata 1990 Riveted aluminium sheet, electrical fuse box, smootherite paint.
86 x 71 x 28 cm. Private collection 		The haul from one trip East Village Vendor and Ice at the Nigel Greenwood Gallery

Vendor on Third

Nickel Heart 1990
riveted aluminium sheet, copper sheet, xerox on veneer, iron fillings, spray paint, blackboard paint, Oldsmobile radiator grille. 137 x 124 x 10 cm. Private collection 		Quiet Kool - samizdata 1990-91
mixed media
34"x31"x8". Artists collection 		Quiet Kool - samizdata 1990-91
mixed media
34"x31"x8". Artists collection 		Your Lucky Charm 1990
mixed media
53"x40"x6". Artists collection 		Kandy 4 U samizdata 1990-91
mixed media
26"x22"x27". Artists collection 		Nickel Heart 1990
mixed media
54"x49"4". Private collection 		Aim’n’Flame - samizdata 1990
riveted aluminium sheet, copper sheet, smootherite paint, yellow cab fender. 64x64x18 cm. Private collection 		ICE 1990
mixed media.
72"x49"8". Private collection 		Side Orders 1990
Canon Laser copies on aluminium, metal frame, glazed.

The ‘Side Orders’ series used still images from Super-8 film of New York. The Super-8 film was transferred to video from which stills were printed out. These prints were then manipulated and printed on a Canon Laser copier 		Side Orders 1990
super 8, video printer, Laser copies on aluminium. 91x104cm. Private collection 		Side Orders 1990
super 8, video printer, Laser copies on aluminium. 91x104cm. Private collection 		Third Base 1989
Acrylic, crayon, xerox on paper
70x50cm. Collection Artguidelines 		Sinking in Flames 1989
Acrylic, crayon, xerox on paper
70x50cm Collection Artguidelines 		Downtown Su 1989
Acrylic, crayon, xerox on paper
70x50cm 		Cab Avenue 1989
Acrylic, crayon, xerox on paper
70x50cm 		Shecky's World, 1988
mixed media diorama
94"x31"x28". Private collection
The Terminator Line exhibition catalogue, Nigel Greenwood Gallery
London 1990. Text by Adam Levy.
Available from the Atlas shop
The Terminator Line
bookwork by Jake Tilson
London 1991
offset litho, instantprint, rubber stamps. 64 page hardback book.
29 x 21 cm
Available from the Atlas shop 		"In The Terminator Line , Tilson does with consummate skill what he has already shown us he can do, orchestrating typography, fragments of maps, labels, advertisements, messages, photographs and street signs to evoke a landscape of quotation, controlling the mixture of the recognisable and the mysterious to perfection....The Terminator Line’s story touches a tender nerve despite its humour and absurdity, picking at our awareness of environmental threats and self-destructive forces, at out attempt to blind ourselves by focusing on the mundane."
Cathy Courtney - ART MONTHLY, 1992 		East Village Series - Toll-Free Calzone 1988
Editioned collage
42x30cm 		East Village Series - Meat Market 1988
Editioned collage
42x30cm		 Defense Mapping Agency 1988
Editioned collage
42x30cm		 Steel Soil 1988
Editioned collage
42x30cm		 East Village Series - 1st & 14th 1988
Editioned collage
42x30cm
Outtakes The Terminator Line super 8 film by Jake Tilson
Atlas 1991
 "X-ray the streets! The archaeology of attrition reverts mankind's urban mark to geological strata revealing a city's true identity, not the illusion peddled by politicians, developers and the media. Avoid the visual ersatz trappings of shopping malls, pedestrian precincts and theme-park cities. Hunt the native and vernacular in everything. Buildings, streets, graphics, television, anything touched and worn away by the city's inhabitants. The objects I physically can't remove from their location I photograph or film."
Jake Tilson, exhibition announcement, ‘How Far is An Hour’,
Galleria del Cavallino, Venice, March 1990 		How Far is an Hour 1989
Installation at Bath Art Fair 		How Far is an Hour 1989
Canon laser copy, b&w xerox, acrylic, spray paint, paper, plywood.
180x180 cm. Artists collection 		How Far is an Hour 1989
Collage on board
180x180 cm. Artists collection 		How Far is an Hour 1989
Collage on board
180x180 cm. Private collection 		How Far is an Hour 1989
Collage on board
180x180 cm. Collection Chase Manhattan Bank 		How Far is an Hour 1989
Collage on board
180x180 cm. Artists collection 		How Far is an Hour 1989
Collage on board
180x180 cm. Collection Chase Manhattan Bank 		How Far is an Hour 1989
Collage on board
180x180 cm. Artists collection 		How Far is an Hour 1989
Collage on board
180x180 cm. Private collection 		How Far is an Hour 1989
Collage on board
180x180 cm. Collection Chase Manhattan Bank 		How Far is an Hour 1989
Collage on board
180x180 cm. Artists collection 		How Far is an Hour 1989
Collage on board
180x180 cm. Artists collection

exhibited at
1998 'Artist/Author, Contemporary Artists' Books' USA touring the American Federation of Arts.
1995 Artists Books, the Tate Gallery, London.
1994 Looking at Words Reading Picture tour.
Artists Books, The Minories, Colchester.
1993 Work Turn, tour.
Contemporary British Artists Books, Scarborough. Contemporary British Artists Books, Hardware Gallery.
1990 Original Copies, MOMA Tokyo, Royal College of Art.
1989 Curved Space, London.
Electrographies, Hardware Gallery.
British Artists Books, Arthur Anderson.
Echtzeit, Kassel Kunstverein.
Paper, Amics, Tokyo.
2 Biennal Internacional de Electrografia y Copy Art, Valencia.
Air Mail, Air Gallery, London.
1988 Bound Image, Milton Keynes, Spacex, Nigel Greenwood, Artsite.
20 Years of British Art from the Sackner Archive, BASS Museum, Miami, Florida.

1987 Recontres Autour de la Revue Luna-Park, Centres Georges Pompidou.
British Artists Books, Center for the Book Arts, New York City. New Artists Books, Galeri TV, Malmo, Sweden.
1986 British Art & Design, Vienna.
Artist as Publisher, Crafts Council, London.
Artists Books, University of Nevada, tour.
1985 Copyart Biennale, Barcelona.
1983 Christies Inaugural.
British Artists Books, Atlantis Gallery.
1983 Xerographies 1977-83, Galerie J et J Donguy, Paris.
1984 New Media 2, Malmo Konsthall, Sweden.
Bookworks, London.
1982 Ars + Machina, La Maison de la Culture de Rennes. Xerographers Gallery, London.
Paris Biennale. 
1981 New Contemporaries, Institute of Contemporary Arts.
1980 Ecritures, Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, Paris.
Groupe TZ 85, Institute Audio Visuel, Paris.
1978 Other Young Contemporaries, London.

appeared in these articles
2002 Jakes Progress, Liz Farelly, Blueprint.
Undercover Magazine, Belgium. 
1986 Clever & Its Art, Sarah Howell, Observer magazine p50.
Jake's Thing, Abigail Frost, Crafts no82, p28-29.
1982 Litterature Pictographique, Marc Dachy, Art Press Aug. Ticket, Michele Roberts, City Limits Jan 1.
Ticket, Micheline Wandor, Time Out Jan 15.
Artist/Photocopier, Nicola Gooch , South Western Star London. Artist Photocopier, Peter Holt, Evening Standard Ad Lib July 6.
1981 Ruth, Roses & Revolvers, Working Proof no1 p7-8.
1980 Escape from the Press Gang, Jake Tilson, Radical Illustrators no38. Catalogues, books and monographs

featured in these books
1998 Artist Author, Cornelia Lauf Clive Philpot, American Federation of Arts, DAP.
1997 Investigations in Cities 1977-1997, (monograph), Museo Internacional de Electrografia,Cuenca,Spain, Atlas.
1996 Typographics 2 Cybertype, Roger Walton, Hearst Books. 1994 Fax Art, Booth Clibborn Editions.
Artists Books, Minories.
Looking at Words Reading Pictures, Open Editions.
1993 Montage, Phaidon.
1992 Work & Turn, Open Editions.
1991 Typography Now, Rick Poynor, Internos Books.
The Graphic Edge, Rick Poynor, Internos Books.
New Typographies, PIE Books, Tokyo.

1990 Original Copies, RCA Canon UK.
1988 20 Years of British Art, Sackner Archive, Miami, Florida. Echzeit, Kasseler Kunstverein.
Copyart Biennale, Valencia.
Bound Image, tour UK.
1987 Britsh Artists Books, Center for Book Arts, New York City. New Artists Books, Galerie TV , Malmo.
1986 Artist as Publisher, Crafts Council, London.
1984 New Media 2, Malmo Konsthall.
1983 Graphique Production, autrement dit, Paris.
1982 Ars + Machina, La Maison de la Culture de Rennes.
Britsh Artists Books, Atlantis Gallery.
World Art Atlas Project, Wellen Belgium.
1980 Ecritures, Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, Paris.