An absence - be it loss, or lack, or impossibility, a person, a place, a time - is often felt strongly enough that it becomes, in itself, a presence. To observe and describe such presence - in either oneself or others - is the aim of this project. What's your most tender, blinding, ticklish, awkward, treasured not-there? It's a delicate question of the kind asked late in late-night conversations, and only rarely of a stranger; there are people whose work, minds, personalities we find magnetic and to whom, for myriad reasons, we won't get close enough to ask what we'd like to know. It's not about an inability to connect with the other - the world is enormous, time short, our attention a flashlight, and there's but a handful of spare batteries.

This was a shortcut: an attempt to ask what we couldn't ask. The resulting body of work is published in a form of a book. We started out 1.5 years ago with a small ambition of gathering the work of a few - five or six, perhaps - artists under the project's roof. It being our first book-publishing endeavour, the work was slow, often excruciatingly so, but - festina lente! Aldus' anchor-and-dolphin advice proved useful. A learning process rewards absence of haste - and we have picked up another ten contributors on the way; there is now 17.

Apart from supplying the theme, we did not give the artists any direction for artwork submissions. In addition to visual art, text was allowed to be submitted. The result is a rather motley patchwork of a book, both style- and media-wise - which is exactly what we hoped to achieve. Each individual contribution is a treasure in itself - but the striking difference of perspectives made for a welcome side effect. "The Sea Is Here | Absence As Presence" is the first book produced by Unimpatient.1, a small publishing outfit based on two shores - in Utah, USA and in Munich, Germany. The book is available in two formats - print and digital. For Robert, N., and S.

Published by Unimpatient.1 productions.

Artwork used by permission of the artists, with whom the copyright resides.

Graphic design, layout, typesetting, & additional photography: Natalia Kutsepova
Editor: Nina Kharchenko

We are indebted to the artists who generously provided their work:
Brady Allen, Chris Bigg, Su Bonfanti, Kati Dahlmann, Mina Fujikura, Rowena Gradetsky, Shaun Evans, Bronia Gardner, Steve Jansen, Nina Kharchenko, Michaela Krauss-Boneau, Alice Letellier, Julie Massy, Clare O'Brien, Tamara Vidos, and Ruairdhri Wright.

www.theseaishere.com  www.unimpatient.one


Copyright Unimpatient.1 productions 2020
Limited edition: cat.No. LE-AAP1.B   ISBN 978-1-7360473-1-6
Standard edition: cat.No. SE-AAP1.B   ISBN 978-1-7360473-0-9
Digital edition: cat.No. DE-AAP1.B   ISBN 978-1-7360473-3-0