Elemer by Marton Perlaki describes a world of chances and combinations, revolving around the manipulation of one central figure before his camera. We do not know who Elemér is – indeed, Perlaki suggests we do not need to know – and as we witness him moving and appearing before the camera he is sculpted, both gesturally and literally. His movements, in turn, elicit the witty, hallucinatory and strange from simple still lives, landscapes and portraits made in Perlaki’s native Hungary. Birds, bubbles, bricks, potatoes and Elemér himself are broken from their contexts, they crash and collide with one another. Within this form of bricolage, Perlaki brings out the absurd from the factual, the delicate from the concrete.

Elemer is a book turned inside-out: with triplexed card on the front and an exposed linen spine, this small book uses a platful approach to image size, pacing and form to bring out unexpected associations. While editing with Marton we began to use educational language cards to structure and organise the images, eventually bringing this principle into the book itself and on the silkscreened cover, an elaborate game of balance.

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