Dogs and Boats and Airplanes told in the form of Ivan the Terrible

november 2011

Dogs and Boats and Airplanes:
Bill Burns

Some notes on the Dogs and Boats and Airplanes book project:
by Bill Burns

I have noticed that dogs and other companion animals occupy an unusually complex place in relation to people and property. Their role as double agent is tied, now to class, now to nation, now to race and now to advanced industrialism. The introduction of boats and airplanes into this project is on the one hand an absurdity, and on the other, a cipher of modernity, global travel and capital. These photographs of dogs and boats and airplanes are taken from my travels.
The book uses Sergei Eisenstein’s classic film Ivan the Terrible (1944) as a template. The story is based on Ivan lV, the Tsar of Russia in the sixteenth century. Pictures of dogs and boats and airplanes will replace all the players and action in the story. Eisenstein’s classic interests me for several reasons. Firstly it uses modern technology (cinema) to tell an epic story that combines a story of love, nation building and war. Secondly, it is exceptionally formally complex in its use of movement, framing and lighting. And finally it is an iconic classic of modern cinema. The book has 16 inter-titles ( in two colours – red and black). These inter-titles tells the basics of the story such as “Ivan’s Coronation and The Boyar Palaces Burn”, “Ivan’s Wedding ” and “Ivan on his Deathbed” etc. The black and white photos of dogs and boats and airplane are of the highest quality and carefully chosen to while the inter-titles will pay homage to Russian Constructivism.

Bill Burns

2011

Format: 12,5 x 17,5
192 sider, fast bind
vægt: 310 g.
Grafisk Design: Åse Eg Jørgensen
Sekretær: Johanne Løgstup
Tryk: Narayana Press
Udgivet med støtte fra: Overretssagfører L Zeuthen´s Mindelegat,
Statens Kunstråd
Canada Council for the Arts