Esopus Offers New Hogancamp Edition

October 23, 2014

The Esopus Foundation is thrilled to announce the publication of Women of Marwencol: Recent Photographs, a brand-new limited edition created by artist Mark Hogancamp. The edition features six stunning recent images (reproduced as full-color 27" x 36" posters) by Hogancamp as well as a booklet packaged in a custom-designed slipcase.

Nearly a decade ago, Esopus debuted Hogancamp’s photographs of Marwencol, the imaginary town he built to 1/6th- scale in his backyard to help recover—emotionally and physically—from a brutal attack that left him with significant brain damage. Hogancamp populated the town with Barbie dolls and military figurines representing himself, his friends, and even his attackers and began documenting their activities through a series of striking photographs. Esopus subscriber Jeff Malmberg was inspired enough by the piece to make the acclaimed 2010 documentary Marwencol, which brought Hogancamp’s fascinating story to a wider audience. That audience will only expand further when the Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Cast Away) makes Hogancamp’s life and work the subject of an upcoming feature film that is currently in pre-production.

Hogancamp has continued to photograph Marwencol. The images featured in the Esopus edition, which depict a number of the town’s female inhabitants—ranging from Hogancamp’s mother, Edda, to the “Belgian Goddess of Youth” Deja Vu—represent some of his strongest, most beautiful work to date, and exhibit his “uncanny feel for body language, psychology, and stage direction” (Jerry Saltz, The Village Voice).

Like the Hope Hill Road multiple created for Esopus by Robert Gober in 2012, this edition is not for sale; rather, it is available only to Premium subscribers of Esopus. Prices start at only $75 for a domestic one-year Premium subscription, which can be ordered directly from the Esopus website. 

In conjunction with the release of the edition, Esopus will co-present an exhibition of Hogancamp’s work at Pioneer Works Center for Arts and Innovation in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The exhibition, Women of Marwencol, will feature large-scale prints of the images reproduced in the Esopus edition along with other photographs—curated by Janet Hicks, director of One Mile Gallery in Kingston, NY—including early works documenting the fascinating origins of the town as well as brand-new photographs by Hogancamp featuring life-size mannequins. The exhibition will run from November 7th to December 13th, and Pioneer Works will also present a screening of the Marwencol documentary on Saturday, November 15, at 7pm with a reception to follow.

For more information, please contact Esopus editor Tod Lippy at +1 (212) 473-0919 or at tod@esopus.org.

 

Image: ©Mark Hogancamp/Artists Rights Society (ARS), Mew York