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Kateryna Bielobrova: No-End Book

posted by POP Members September 1, 2020

Kateryna Bielobrova is a Ukrainian artist, illustrator, and designer. Her practice focuses on the exploration of the contemporary world and human nature, and she believes that psychological and philosophical research is important in order to create a more conscious and completed project. This research has led Kat to create No-End; a 60-page book and print manifesto.

The project began as part of her Bachelor’s degree, during which Kat wanted to analyse the inner condition of modern society. This initiated Kat to research French philosophy of the 20th Century century which was based on two concepts: rhizome and society of control. Rhizome is a philosophical concept created by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in order to name the resistance of linear structures in time and in thinking. Today, this definition is highly related to a modern society, thus society is a field for its development. The concept of rhizome is described as “an endless non-hierarchical structure, that can lead to any possible outcome, accessing already existing social institutions or creating new ones (the internet, for instance)“. In this way rhizome enters the art world, and then pop culture, which enables it to spread widely throughout society. Consequently, rhizome reaches human beings and transforms them into post-humans. A new kind of human perception emerges from this transformation, based on the desire to control, and on post-anthropocentric ideas.


Print is an unpredictable, time and space-delayed process, which means less control. The desire for control has changed print and slowly been turning it into antique. It’s now more used to sustain the tradition of printing, not for advertising. Today, almost every book is available to read online or as an eBook, thus the demand for book manufacturing is based on the desire to preserve old values. The further away, the more ad agencies see print design as an uncontrolled field of visual communication. This makes them want to replace it with digital design, which consists of digits shaped by algorithms. The algorithms allow them to collect users’ data and then analyse their activities for the purpose of gaining control… Print as a communication aimed at developing haptic sense and other feelings, serves us also as the attempt to find the promising answers to questions of self identification and the beacon in rhizomatic journey.

Through her research, Kat learnt that according to Deleuze and Guattari; a book is an image of the world. Therefore, she created No-End in order to represent an image of the rhizomatic world. The construction of the book enables endless reading, as well as reflecting the principle of rhizome; non-linearity. The publication was constructed based on Atoma ring binding, which allows pages to rotate endlessly around their own axis. The lack of the cover, pagination, and the absence of linear narratives, demonstrate the perception of a human who lives in rhizome. “No-End Book, an object situated somewhere between fine arts and graphic design, and can serve both as an art work and an illustrated book” concludes Kat.

www.katbielobrova.com
@kat.bielobrova

You can shop Kat’s collection of artworks on Department Store here.

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