Songlines . Kathleen Jahn

As accompaniment to the exhibition Songlines . Kathleen Jahn at the Kunsthalle Göppingen, a publication of the same name has been produced. Over 144 catalogue pages, Kathleen Jahn weaves a web of thematic references and lets “a melody of movement” emerge. The catalogue is presented in landscape format, elegant and slim, an orientation that reinforces the flow of movement as readers browse through the content.

Each thematic section is separated by grey dividing pages. They serve as spaces to breathe, brief cæsuras before the viewer is caught up once more in the flow of movement through the rest of the catalogue. 

The deliberately subtle and understated use of grey tones—found both on text pages and as a base color—give Kathleen Jahn’s displayed works space to reveal themselves. At the same time, they act as optical brackets that connect the detail-rich black-and-white photographs with the contrasting colored works and reinforce the rhythmic movement of the catalogue as a whole.