Chaos Book
This book was made during my Erasmus semester in Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, Belgium. I had been interested in printmaking for a while and I took all the possible courses for it in my school, but I still felt it wasn’t enough. So I went on Erasmus and studied printmaking for a semester in Belgium.
It was quite a change to step out of the usual designer mindset that I was taught in my studies so far and approach topics from a more fine arts perspective. It was a great experience to have a different way of studying and learn new printmaking techniques in an international environment.
The concept of this book was to use creatures that are seen as disgusting and parasitic for humans, and arrange them in patterns to create a contrast in how we perceive repulsive things when they are in somehow aesthetic form. When is something beautiful, and in contrast, when does something become vile? Patterns of animals are contrasted with very structured man-made calligraphic fonts to show the other end of the spectrum.
Besides practical skills like linocut, operating printing machines to bookbinding, what I gained most out of this experience was to see my works in a more critical way, to pay more attention to the concept and also to stay authentic to my ideas.
