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Synopsis

The artist collective known as assume vivid astro focus (avaf) gained worldwide recognition in 2004 with their outrageous cacophonous installations, based on pop–cultural collage and pastiche with a strong documentary bent. Works of some artists defy description in the traditional sense, and assume vivid astro focus reaches beyond anything traditional. Perhaps Cay Sophie Rabinowitz puts it best when she says avaf "poses various challenges to any critic or writer trying to get to the core of its practice". The only way to experience their work is to see it, or if lucky enough, participate in its creation. The eponymously titled book, assume vivid astro focus, captures the exuberance and excitement experienced by those who have witnessed avaf's visually spectacular room–size installations in person.

Founded by Eli Sudbrack, avaf's work is comprised of imagery created by the artists combined with recycled and appropriated images from a wide range of sources—such as unicorn tapestries, children's stickers, pages from gay porn magazines, album covers, Buddhist thangka paintings, and street graffiti, to name a few—and the results are explosive. Twenty two of their global exhibitions are featured in the volume, many of them mounted at some of the most important institutions in the world, such as The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, The Museum of Modern Art, and Tate Liverpool. This volume, their first, will include many of the elements featured in their installations, which are known for the many "give–aways" the artists provide visitors, and will include a poster and mask with 3–D glasses, all designed by avaf.

assume vivid astro focus is spectacularly illustrated with 270 images, including three gatefolds, and complemented by insightful text revealing the concepts, beliefs, and practices of this extraordinary artist collective.