Strange Paradise traverses an ambiguous territory between the peculiar and the familiar as Charlie Rubin creates unexpected combinations with idiosyncratic logic. Taking perception as his waypoint, the Brooklyn-based artist presents a multifaceted body of work that explores the convergence of the actual and the artificial.

He examines perception and the process by which people take in information thorough highly manipulated photographs that question the nature of perception. In the book, the pace and sequence is modified by images that, while spatially ambiguous, are left unchanged. But Strange Paradise is, in fact, the world we live in today, with it’s kaleidoscopic opportunities for interaction, both actual and virtual.

In an interview in Foam Magazine #36, Rubin said to Jorge M. Colberg, “I’m fascinated at the fact you could be looking at your phone at an image from another continent in one second, and then look up an you’re in the middle of dinner at a restaurant in New York. Or how you can find out that an old friend went to a concert last night but you haven’t seen them in months. And on top of that you find out about a far-away tragedy, without even having to scroll down. It’s pretty eerie, as if everything is just floating along, content, on these multiple, disconnected planes. A whole other space is created, and there’s this nostalgia for something that doesn’t exist. Maybe the novelty is wearing off though."

For the book launch tonight at Printed Matter, Rubin has covered the storfront and filled its window with the evidence of his investigations (above). The display is on view through April 24^th.

Rubin's venture calls attention to the tension between the real and the artificial by incorporate photography, collage, and printmaking within the text. In the process he dares the reader to observe how the quotidian can be subsumed into a nearly robotic vortex, challenging the reader to establish his/her own footing in this visually shifting terrain.

Charles Rubin, Strange Paradise (Conveyor Editions 2014). Book signing tonight 6-8 pm. Printed Matter, 195 Tenth Avenue, NY, NY.