Johan Rosenmunthe

Johan Rosenmunthe

Work from Tectonic.

“Stones transcend human life and experience. They live on different time scales to humans, exist on other planets and fall from the sky to Earth. Both art and philosophy have looked upon the stone before (think Sartre’s nausea at pebbles on the beach) because they are compelling objects of alchemical weight. Tectonic is a mysterious and mesmerising exploration of Rosenmunthe’s own fascination with the power of stones, their symbolism, perceived healing powers, atavic beauty, weight, surface, age. The book is the culmination of a lifetimes investigation – each photograph a new study, looked at with geological perspective, nostalgia or scientific standpoint.

Accompanied by a section of Mary Anne Atwood’s text ‘A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery’, reprinted after originally being withdrawn as a dangerous literature of magic, the book harnesses that same alchemical power. Bound in an iridescent material that embodies the very essence of shimmering lapis lazuli, Tectonic honours the golden ration of composition design, and the viewer is locked into triangles that allow the object an alluring ambiguity in its own right.

These are inquisitive works, but they are not questions, because no answers can be found.” – Mary Anne Atwood