powerHouse Books is pleased to announce the October 2021 Limited Edition Release of KALI
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
powerHouse Books is pleased to announce the October 2021 Limited Edition Release of
KALI
Photographs by Kali
Introduction by Matt Tyrnauer
Afterward by Len Prince
Prefaces by Alexandra Jarrell
Essay by Brian Wallis
Beautifully designed by the famed book designers Sam Shahid and Matthew Kraus and featuring an introduction by Matt Tyrnauer that showcases his stunning ability to understand Kali's narrative along with an essay by the curator Brian Wallis, powerHouse Books is proud to present what is perhaps the discovery of the decade! A veritable Vivian Maier redux!
Joan Archibald was a suburban housewife with two kids living in Long Island in the 1960s. In 1964 she walked out of her house and never returned.
She ended up in hippy Malibu, living out of her car. She changed her name to Kali. She took up photography, taking pictures of Californians not much younger than herself. She hung out with Richard Chamberlain. She was loving it.
A year later, her mom bought her a house in Palm Springs–Bobby Darrin and Sandra Dee's old place–so the kids could visit. "An artist," she said, "needs to live alone to create." But she did allow the kids to stay during school holiday breaks.
Susan, the girl, was a muse for her mom, dressing up and assuming made-up characters dreamt up by Kali; Susan's holiday friend Cindy Sherman also was a model in these photographic experiments.
Kali's large outdoor pool was in fact her giant finishing tank: after developing her prints in her Roman bathtub, she would toss the freshly developed prints into the pool with bottles of color and finishing agents, bugs and dirt, buckets of dye and paints, dancing in the pool with the artwork, tossing each print to the deck after achieving the perfect colorization that signified its finishing. Kali would emerge after hours of "finishing" her work, collapsing from exhaustion. Susan was in charge of retrieving the prints, after which they disappeared and were never seen again. Until now.
Susan moved away and got married, to Len Prince, and during the subsequent decades Kali became more and more reclusive, obsessively photographing the monitors hooked up to her house's extraordinary Closed Circuit TV security system, and making notes and drawings of the nocturnal events she witnessed overnight. Kali photographed various lights, shapes and human-like forms and for over three years she did not leave her house due to the fear these uninvited nightly visitors brought upon her. Estranged from her family, no one knew what happened to her until Susan received a call from a hospital. She reconnected with Kali, now suffering from dementia, and remained with her mother all the way up until her death. Upon cleaning out Kali's house and settling her affairs, the mysterious lockers in the hallway leading up to the garage were opened, and Susan promptly had a stroke. Her ex-husband, Len Prince, a noted photographer in his own right, spent the next two years archiving and organizing the prodigious output of the eccentric and brilliant Kali. The archive, now with Emory University, is presented here for the first time.
KALI LIMITED EDITION BOOK
Four-Book Set with Slipcase
Kali: An Introduction, Kali: Portraits and Landscapes, Kali: Polaroids, Kali: Outer Space
MATT TYRNAUER
Matt Tyrnauer is a director, writer and journalist, whose films include Valentino: The Last Emperor; Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood; Studio 54; and Where's My Roy Cohn? As Editor-At-Large and Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair he contributed many feature articles, and has contributed to publications including The New York Times, Architectural Digest, and L'Uomo Vogue. He is a native of Los Angeles.
LEN PRINCE
Len Prince is an American photographer whose work includes portraiture of film, dance, and music legends, fashion, nudes, and cityscapes. Publications include About Glamour (1997), Make Over Your Man (2001), Remembering Marvin Hamlisch (2016), as well as numerous prints and interviews in Vanity Fair, Interview Magazine, Essence, and Paper Magazine. Prince's focus on theatrical and entertainment photography has led to campaign work for several Broadway theater productions, including The Graduate with Kathleen Turner, Jason Biggs, and Alicia Silverstone, and Chicago with Gretchen Mol, Usher, Brooke Shields, Mel B, among others. His work is held at The Getty Museum and the Archives at Emory University. Prince currently resides in upstate New York with his two chocolate Labs, Bob Yoda and Archie.
Alexandra Jarrell
Alexandra Jarrell is an award-winning documentarian, writer, and producer. She is the founder of Water Tower Productions, a film production company based in SoHo, New York City. Jarrell has directed and produced both feature and short length films, earning film festival accolades, including the NYC Cityscape Award at the TriBeCa Film Festival. As a child, Alexandra was Len Prince's upstairs neighbor. The pair began collaborating together when Alexandra was nine and appeared in a music video Prince directed. Jarrell went on to produce Prince's photo shoots for Broadway's Chicago; including Times Square billboards, marquees, and print advertisement, as well as portraiture and print shoots.
BRIAN WALLIS
Brian Wallis is the former Chief Curator and Deputy Director at the International Center of Photography in New York, where he organized or co-organized numerous exhibitions including "Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self;" "African American Vernacular Photography;" "Ecotopia;" and "Weegee: Murder is My Business." He is the coeditor of Imagining Everyday Life: Engagements with Vernacular Photography (2020).
Women Artists / Artists' Book / Collections, Catalogs, & Exhibitions
Hardcover, 10 x 13 inches, 376 pages
ISBN: 978-1-57687-885-9, $175.00 US / $211.99 CAN
High-res scans to your specification are available upon request; scanning from the book or lifting images from the mechanical file are strictly prohibited. Mandatory credit line: From KALI Ltd. Ed. by Len Prince, Matt Tyrnauer and Brian Wallis, published by powerHouse Books.
For press contact:
info@kaliartography.com
© Copyright 2021 powerHouse Book