Unicorn by Austrian artist Bela Borsodi is comprised of a series of seemingly abstract still life photographs that, upon further inspection, reveal themselves to be tautly illustrative photographic rebus puzzles – allusive devices that use pictures to represent words or parts of words. When viewed without context, the photographs contain a seemingly random conflation of imagery and items, but slowly and through observation, patterns emerge through clues laid throughout the frame. Objects appear precisely placed, and letters indicate verbal additions or subtractions. You start to break down the images into sectors, forcing yourself to look at the photographs in a manner unlike your regular ways of seeing. You excoriate the frame, searching for clues. By the time you’ve solved the puzzle, you’ve also luxuriated into a new photographic realm.
It's important to note that Borsodi’s images are composed entirely in camera. While from afar they might seem to be abstract collages combining unconnected images and overlaid typography, Borsodi’s control of composition is nothing if not entirely ordered.
40 pages, 30 x 23.5 cm, Libraryman (Paris).