Simon Isaac SIGNED David Come Home Photography Science Fiction Bowie Blackstar
David Come Home by Simon Isaac Signed by Simon Isaac on the title page (see second image); 2022 1st Limited? Edition seemingly published by the author with Capsule Marketing, with an Introduction by Mathias Heng & text by Brunno Silva, 112pp. No dust jacket as issued? , text generally in decent order albeit with rubbing & scuffing to the edges of the fold-out section (between pages 80 & 89), creasing to the left hand side of the front free end paper, spine very slightly cocked & boards very slightly warped & bowed, very slight bumping & rubbing to board corners & top of spine, heavier to the top & sides of boards & heavier still to the base of both boards & base of spine + front bottom left hand/rear bottom right hand corners, bumping & rubbing to spine edges on front & rear, front board very slightly marked, rear board more so with a small patch of rubbing/scuffing to the right of the main photo & staining to the left hand edge towards the bottom. Simon Isaac, who grew up in the industrial heartland of Wales through the 1980's, is a multimedia artist working predominantly with photography and moving image.
His research explores themes of isolation, abandonment, and trauma in the self and society. Such exploration occurs through imagery of place and the relation between sentient beings and location.
The idea of future and technology is often used to build the artist's narratives and artworks. In this extensive body of work, Simon Isaac expanded his photography practice by incorporating new technologies to build a fragmented narrative of a future that seems, although fantastical, an inevitable future of space colonization and the possible social and physiological implication of such a narrative. His vessel for this tale is David whom we meet before the first image is in sight. The message in the title is clear: David is forcefully summoned to return to some concept of home.
The title also offers a possible description of three equal parts, one named after each word of this journey, this can also be perceived in connection to a three-act structure, often used in fiction as a narrative device. Simon Isaac uses artworks as if he were a storyteller or a filmmaker. Each image is constructed using minimal digital intervention leading the artist to visit diverse and remote locations in order to find the landscapes that could build other worlds beyond Earth. For example, the Svínafellsjökull Glacier where the ice planet locations were shot for the movie Interstellar, that can be seen in the artwork'Existence 2'. Once the image is created, Simon engages in discovering the best printing method and material for each given scene. The various forms of art printing encompasses traditional paper, transparencies, wallpaper, reclaimed aircraft aluminium and screen. All carried out in the pursuit to build David's world, including the choice of exhibition space and forms of display. Often fractured - as recollection, memory and even image recording always is - there is an exercise of flexing cultural muscles to unfold David's story from an array of pop culture, Western cinema and Sci-Fi TV shows that build ours and the artist's reference points for space travel imagination. Such references are at times to be discovered, for example in'Endeavour 1' where the astronaut suit worn by David was used in David Bowie's 2015 video production for Blackstar. Ultimately, David guides us through a landscape of places and states. A journey of leaving and returning and thus, discovering what we may be in relation to our environment and ourselves. Simon Isaac builds this world and its emotions with fantastical images and textures in this constellation of artworks.