FIRST PHOTOBOOK

Book signings

Csilla Klenyánszki
Pillars of Home
Self-published
Amsterdam, 2019
 
In Csilla Klenyánszki’s self-published book Pillars of Home, the artist uses sculptures made from close-at-hand objects to depict the fragility, chaos, and tensions of motherhood. A mother herself, Klenyánszki uses umbrellas, tables, kitchen appliances, houseplants—and occasionally her own body—to create pillar-like sculptures throughout her home. During the brief moments that her son is napping (never more than thirty minutes at a time), she strategically stacks bowls, mops, vases, broomsticks, and other objects, creating a barely balanced sculpture, vulnerable to collapsing. “Klenyánszki seamlessly combines different artistic practices—photography, performance, and sculpture—to make a bold statement about the precariousness of motherhood,” notes Wiesner. The book itself is small in format but clever in its use of brightly colored pages and a text treatment that mimics the pillars’ form. As stated in the introduction of the book, being a mother is a “never-ending juggling act.”