A certain pragmatic dryness characterizes Laura Bielau’s publication for Angle which, as the title says, involves ten pictures of eggs. These are presented sequentially as photograms that refer to a narrative as well as representing the egg directly. The specific characteristics of the photographic medium as a producer of images preoccupy Bielau. An object with any function that is taken for granted is given a more compact and redefined function as a picture. 10 Eggs, Animal, Work thus has conceptual precision as a visual representation.

The series of photograms, created manually with an enlarger in the darkroom, dominates the book. In the process an egg has repeatedly been placed on photographic paper in complete darkness, and Bielau has illuminated it without being able to control where it lands on the paper. The eggs in the book appear against a yellow background and with the blunt end upwards, and appear to bounce across the page. With their closed form they can be read as white openings in the paper. These pictures are compiled with a photogram made with a stencil. Unlike the eggs it can be reproduced infinitely in ‘identical’ copies.

The final touch to the book is a self-portrait in which Bielau lies casually on a sofa in her studio, reading a Charles Bukowski book. Is this a playful paraphrase of the artist’s disposition towards rebellion, intensified by the single page with the word ‘tablet’ in three columns? Production, rest and repeated sedation create different but intersecting spaces of association. In this last picture different elements; the workplace and self-presentation, are combined in the actual starting-point for the artistic work. Out of this basic situation, and the artist’s staging of the image, the eggs simply roll.