MASEREEL

Old news – the fifth installment of our vitrine project Hold the Space – is an edition by Ash Kilmartin consisting each time of a single sheet, containing fourteen cards arranged in two vertical columns. Twelve of these cards feature texts sourced from newspaper headlines, pull quotes and captions that were sent to Kilmartin by a friend, initially collaged onto postcards, which she has carefully edited and remixed. The edition is perforated to resemble a sheet of postage stamps, with the title occupying the first square and the Masereel stamp placed in the fourteenth. A third element, a blind emboss pressed into the paper, unique to each edition, adds a subtle dimensional quality to each card. Together, the printed text, embossing, and perforation form a triad of visual and material gestures.

The work is produced in ten editions, each deliberately incomplete: one card is cut out. This absence is a conceptual homage to a year-long exchange with the friend who sent Kilmartin the weekly postcards from which her text is recycled. During a move, one card was lost in the mail, leaving her collection forever one short. In response, from October 2025 Kilmartin started sending the missing card from each edition back to the original correspondent, month by month. By October 2026, the correspondent will hold a complete set. Thus, each edition remains partially missing, yet intrinsically linked to its origin.

This work was created as part of Hold the Space. All proceeds go directly to the artist.