Michael Dumontier, Micah Lexier

Call Ampersand Response

Call Ampersand Response is a collaborative artwork made through an exchange of images via email. Between 2011 and 2017 Michael Dumontier and Micah Lexier conceived this activity as a way to share with each other their mutual interest in found images, line drawings, and used books.

The starting image was of a circle on a rectangle; every subsequent image was visually connected to the previous one. It was understood from the beginning that they had to use images that could be scanned from physical items they already had at home (no images from the Internet)—such as children’s books, personal collections of technical manuals, and assorted ephemera.

The call-and-response nature of the enterprise can be appreciated in the distinctive pairs of facing pages that present themselves as you go through the bound book. To reinforce their dual roles each image appears twice in the book, once as response and again as call. One can see the resulting series of images as a closed loop with no beginning and no end.

This second, expanded edition includes the entire project of 196 exchanges that make up Dumontier and Lexier’s clever, competitive, and meandering loop of images. Creative people in art and design will take pleasure in browsing the book and discover formal analogies, witty poetic correspondence, and dadaesque follies, which congregate to an unseen visual narrative. Truly an inspirational tool for creative activists!

Call Ampersand Response is a collaborative artwork made through an exchange of images via email. Between 2011 and 2017 Michael Dumontier and Micah Lexier conceived this activity as a way to share with each other their mutual interest in found images, line drawings, and used books.

The starting image was of a circle on a rectangle; every subsequent image was visually connected to the previous one. It was understood from the beginning that they had to use images that could be scanned from physical items they already had at home (no images from the Internet)—such as children’s books, personal collections of technical manuals, and assorted ephemera.

The call-and-response nature of the enterprise can be appreciated in the distinctive pairs of facing pages that present themselves as you go through the bound book. To reinforce their dual roles each image appears twice in the book, once as response and again as call. One can see the resulting series of images as a closed loop with no beginning and no end.

This second, expanded edition includes the entire project of 196 exchanges that make up Dumontier and Lexier’s clever, competitive, and meandering loop of images. Creative people in art and design will take pleasure in browsing the book and discover formal analogies, witty poetic correspondence, and dadaesque follies, which congregate to an unseen visual narrative. Truly an inspirational tool for creative activists!

Author(s): Michael Dumontier, Micah Lexier

Design: Michael Dumontier, Micah Lexier

17 × 24 cm, 6 ¾ × 9 ½ in

392 pages, 392 illustrations

paperback

2019, 978-3-03778-591-1, English
CHF 45.00

Micah Lexier

Micah Lexier (born 1960) is a Toronto-based artist whose activities including making, collecting and organizing. He has presented over 100 solo exhibitions, participated in more than 200 group exhibitions and has produced a dozen permanent public commissions. In 2015 Lexier was honoured with a Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts.

Michael Dumontier

Michael Dumontier (born 1974) is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Winnipeg. His work has been exhibited internationally including in New York City, Boston, and Padova, Italy. He is known in particular for his minimal paintings and collages. He may be best known for his collaborations with Marcel Dzama, Neil Farber, and others as a founding member of The Royal Art Lodge.