NYC Fishing Journal by Yi Xin Tong presents personal images and notes from 62 out of hundreds of his fishing trips taken between 2015 and 2018.
Tong started fishing in New York City in early 2015. He has since been to various urban peripheries where he encountered ruins, wild animals and vegetation, shamans, and many other things beyond mundane life. As an artist, Tong realized that he had enthusiastically appropriated large amounts of studio time for fishing. It brought him from artmaking to explorations of the city’s less-seen aspects. Tong keeps visual and textual notes of all his fishing trips: his harvest, his cooking of fish dishes, his tackle, companions, the weather, the route, the landscapes, all of which he archives inside his laptop. This archive became the starting point for this publication.
With more than 200 images, 3 flip books of video stills, duplicates of fishing licenses, and other related objects, the Journal offers a glimpse into Tong’s fishing trips around the city. Photos are printed in various sizes, bundled loosely using fish lines, tagged and arranged according to Tong's organizing habits. Boxed up in a transparent case, the publication materializes Tong’s digital archive, while it also suggests the form of a memory box, a treasure case, and a fish tank.
NYC Fishing Journal is an editioned publication, an archive of a project, an artist book, a piece of artwork, a collaboration, and all of the above at once.
