First edition of This is a Test by Jason Hendardy(2024). 

First impression

Medium format hardcover in fine condition

Some very minor wear to extremities of the boards

Pages clean, binding firm

About

Between 1963 and 1997, in the United States, emergency test messages often aired on television, interrupting the scheduled program. Jason Hendardy grew up with these interruptions, which would open with the words “THIS IS A TEST” accompanied by a strident, anxiety-inducing noise. Born on American soil to Indonesian parents, the photographer and multi-disciplinary artist keeps vivid memories of these TV messages, which crystallize a sense of impending catastrophe amidst a backdrop of American Dream and technological boom. This a Test, published by Gnomic Book, combines screenshots of videos the artist captured with a camcorder as a child with photographs he has taken since 2020. The frozen video images are glitchy, infused with family nostalgia and strongly marked by the characteristic aesthetics of these now obsolete technologies. The photographs, on the other hand, capture the atmosphere of suburban America, bathed in golden end-of-day light. The whole awakens a strange kind of melancholy: a feeling of deep familiarity with a time long gone.