Black Ark

The starting point of the book "Black Ark" is an extensive photographic and written inventory of the Black Ark Studios in Kingston, Jamaica, where Jamaican musician and artist Lee "Scratch" Perry (1936–2021) produced his music from 1973 onwards. He was one of the defining pioneers of Dub – an electronic subgenre of reggae that utilizes sampling, looping, remixing, as well as reverbs and echoes for the creation, editing, and appropriation of existing songs and tracks.

At this original site of Dub, Lee "Scratch" Perry's musical approach found its visual counterpart for the first time, shaping his work as a visual artist: in the form of continuously evolving murals and drawings, as well as shape-shifting assemblages made from records, instruments, found objects, posters, and images from newspapers or magazines, along with appropriated books – actual strata that connect associatively and rhizomatically with the architecture of the place, the furniture within it, and ultimately Perry's biography and persona. In this way, Perry created a unique, dense universe that is captured in "Black Ark" before it disappears for good: the property has since been sold.

Alongside the photographic documentation, the preservation and conservation of Perry's objects, works, and recordings were secured as part of a project in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution. The book, conceived in exchange with Perry, aims to reflect rhythm and the layering of collage techniques, making them perceptible on both content and material levels. In "Black Ark," various media and temporal layers intertwine. Recent recordings from the Black Ark Studios are juxtaposed with material from old documentaries and archival images from Perry's collection.