The series Hands-On: Two Films by Jessica Sarah Rinland starts on MUBI on April 5, 2021 in many countries.
While making films I occasionally produce books. The first few I printed and handbound myself during a period when I was also manually editing my films on a Steenbeck. Most recently, the books have been sent elsewhere to be printed and bound in larger editions, similar to my films which I now process elsewhere, and edit and show digitally.
The films are still shot on 16mm film, a material that includes ground up animal bones. The books continue to be layers of cellulose paper pulp, made from wood and grass. Both my films and books can live together or separately, each offering a different way of seeing and touching, of being and preserving.
THE SOCIETY
Opening pages to The Society, made simultaneously with Black Pond (2018).
Structured in chronological order, the book documents email communications between the Elmbridge Natural History Society members and myself, offering a social history of this particular site while more intimately exploring human’s relationship with and within nature.
The book is printed in pocket-size, simulating 20th century reference guides for naturalists.
Published by Edition HS, Design by Huber/Sterzinger
Available for pre-order here
A REPLICA OF CONSERVATION
Excerpt from the prologue to A Replica of Conservation, a work in progress.
The book constitutes one part of a three-part project which includes a ceramic replica of an elephant’s tusk currently housed at London’s Natural History Museum and the feature film, Those That, at a Distance, Resemble Another (2019).