Not the physical person, but her very individual way of declassifying shape Karolina sees into disinformation, so that the focus being a step-change ahead of what she shoots into a body breathing helium and not oxygen. In a very real way Martin is the cryonic agent to transformation, the near-frozen body time-slipped into physical abstraction. – Jeremy Reed
‘No Breath of Sound’ is the pinnacle of a collaboration between Karolina Urbaniak and Martin Bladh. It’s the third and final part of a trilogy - including the series ‘Coup de grâce’ and ‘To Putrefaction’ - which explores the artist's personal obsession with beauty and death.
Captured against the backdrop of south England’s seashore Urbaniak’s photographs transmute Bladh’s naked body into posthuman landscapes, making it the centre and the sole protagonist in a static theatre of death. Each photograph corresponds with a piece of text carefully chosen and juxtaposed by Bladh. The History of Drowning is a fragmented, romantic ode which combines the deaths of Dutch artist Jas Ban Ader with Ludwig ll of Bavaria, the executions of the early christian martyrs with the American Smiley Face Murders, and the disaster victims of Kaho Lak with the suicide lovers leap from the Yangtze River Bridge in China.
No Breath of Sound by Karolina Urbaniak & Martin Bladh
Infinity Land Press has produced a limited set of 20 box-sets, signed and numbered by the artists. The box includes 16 high quality mounted prints with corresponding texts.
Size: 23cm x 23cm x 4cm
December 2016
Martin Bladh
Martin Bladh is a Swedish-born artist of multiple mediums. His work lays bare themes of violence, obsession, fantasy, domination, submission and narcissism. Bladh is a founding member of the post-industrial band IRM, the musical avant-garde unit Skin Area and co-founder of the publishing company Infinity Land Press. His published work includes To Putrefaction, Qualis Artifex Pereo, DES, The Hurtin’ Club and Darkleaks - The Ripper Genome. He lives and works in London.
Karolina Urbaniak
Karolina Urbaniak is a visual artist, musician, designer, professional photographer and co-founder of Infinity Land Press. Her published work includes To Putrefaction, The Void Ratio and Altered Balance – A Tribute to Coil (a collaboration between Urbaniak and the award-winning poet and novelist Jeremy Reed). She also composed the soundtrack to the limited edition of Jeremy Reed’s and Martin Bladh’s book Darkleaks - The Ripper Genome. Urbaniak is currently collaborating with british writer Steve Finbow on the multimedia project Death-Mort-Tod - A European Reliquary, forthcoming on Infinity Land Press.