lick of tongue, rub of finger, on soft wound

Keisha Scarville

MACK

$55.00

Keisha Scarville has spent much of her life tracing routes of movement between the Caribbean and America in order to investigate her own lineage. Attempting to understand how notions of belonging and identity are formed and structured, her image-making practice visualises the latent narratives inscribed within the thresholds of memory across generations.

This first publication by Scarville unfolds as a sprawling, hypnotic visual essay, evocatively interweaving the artist’s striking black-and-white photography with archival imagery, passages from books, collages, personal texts, and film stills. Moving between practice and archive, Scarville uses the form of the artist’s book to reflect on what it means to create new genealogies by disrupting conventional, linear histories. The result is a journey through a multiplicity of personal and historical narratives of the Black diaspora. With this book, Scarville reflects on a process of becoming shaped by the diasporic imagination of Black people throughout the world.

Accompanied by a text by poet and author Harmony Holiday

OTA bound paperback
20 x 25cm, 168 pages

ISBN 978-1-915743-18-3
October 2023
€50 £45 $50

The signed edition includes a slip signed by the artist and glued into the inside back cover.

lick of tongue, rub of finger, on soft wound is a great title for a photobook – intriguing, impressionist and near-collage in effect, much like Scarville’s images.’ British Journal of Photography

‘It’s almost as though, in the beginning of the book, [Scarville is] working through and then peeling back layers of the earth to get at some deeper and more mysterious space.’ American Suburb X

lick of tongue, rub of finger, on soft wound challenges preconceived notions of photography. Scarville’s exploration of images as sites of transmission and incompleteness push the boundaries of the medium.’ Musée Magazine

‘The book encourages us to join Scarville as she engages in a complex process of self-examination, disrupting linear histories. As an artist’s book, it is also an admirable example of how the photobook can be used as a creative form to re-present a complete body of work.’ Collector Daily

‘The book [is] emblematic of [Scarville’s] research and artistic work.’ Collateral Magazine 

‘A visual feast of pattern and texture’ Galerie Magazine  

Free local shipping on orders over $70

Express shipping available

Return within 14 working days for a refund

Have a question? Call us on +44 (0) 20 7442 2190 or email us at support@mackbooks.co.uk