Dennis ADAMS (1948 Des Moines, IA. Lives in New York)
COOL HAND LUKE, 2011-2012
Archival Photomontage
Glicee print on Hahnemule Rag Paper
No. 3 from the Edition of 5
Unframed: 36 x 28 in. / 91.5 x 71 cm.
“COOL HAND LUKE takes its name from the film of the same title. In that film, Paul Newman bets that he can eat 50 eggs and does. My idea here, was to register the desire for total knowledge.”
In 2012, along with Adams’ completion of his 42 minute video Malraux’s Shoes, he was simultaneously referencing his own extensive library and archive documenting the intellectual climate of the 1960s. Tagging the Archive forms a cryptic link to the underpinnings of Adams’ oeuvre. The mere act of bringing together books and ephemera in the form of a personal library allowed issues to be raised, contiguities to be revealed and borders between disciplines to be transgressed.
