Stathis Tsemberlidis og Lando: Decaying forms and abstract comics

The Danish Graphics House will host an exhibition with Decadence Comics. The exhibitors will use the wall spaces to present a selection of their original drawings, showing some of the processes of their practices, as well as a small archive of publications displaying their development over the 17 years of making zines. The audience can freely navigate the space and take a closer look at the paper qualities and printing techniques that have been used for the production of the books, as well as explore the various possibilities of alternative storytelling and publishing in comics.

A reading space will be provided for visitors to explore thought provoking narratives that trip between the abstraction of human bodies evolutionary theories, organic imagery, spacemen, vast landscapes and crystalline shapes all filtered through the prism of socio-political science fiction.

Decadence comics is an art collective founded by Lando and Stathis Tsemberlidis. Their artistic practices are much influenced by the political act of self publishing and diy culture found in the underground European and American comic scene of the 70’s. Reading sci-fi literature and comics from Europe and Japan gave them a desire to escape the limited opportunities and constraints of commercial publishing and pushed them into self-publishing where they could hold control of the work from the inception of ideas to the final presentation.

Their idea of the sci-fi anthology ‘Decadence’ began in a cheap and easy to produce format in which they were able to develop their work and experiment with the short story framework, while it also provided a platform and place for the exchange of ideas with other contributing artists. They used recycled off-white paper, printing in black and white with minimal design work and information, echoing the cheap manga anthologies in Japan.

Their individual zines are looking into the various possibilities of how a comic is presented. Using strange pulpy recycled paper and design sensibilities that are closer to a scientific study often make the books seem like bizarre artefacts from a library on another world. Some of the ideas are presented through alternative publishing imprints such as ‘Decadence University Press’ appropriating the aesthetics of a respected academic institution. While the titles of these publications can be overly descriptive and specific, the wordless interior stories can give an ambiguous snapshot into other places, like watching lost documentary footage that traverses through deep time. Most of their stories are set in an apocalyptic or dystopian future and are concerned with humanity’s evolution and possible escape routes from a destructive present.

Artist talk
Night of the Bio Mutants 6 March at 17.30
The artists in conversation with Jacob Lillemose.

Kilde: Danske Grafikeres Hus