Wednesday 13 August 2008

If all I did was...

update my websites and blogs, I would do little else, and wouldn't have anything, any work to blog about. Though a slightly tedious business, it is necessary for someone who has to stay in with a child and partner. I am looking forward to our camping trip later this month, and will probably blog that, too!
I made a few bookworks recently (all from 2008) so here are some pics:



This one's called 'What Good Is A Butterfly?' This is an artist's book in a limited edition of 3. Appropriated children’s arts and crafts materials inspire a selection of prose and collected images, telling a short story of the Monarch butterfly migration.
Text extracted from http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/
Materials include: acetate, stickers, napkins and tissues; and ink jet on various papers; children's’ mini photo album.
Price £20



Sweet Nothings

As a compulsive collector of reusable packaging and containers I wanted to create a bookwork from mint containers for some time. I made a one-off piece to go with my altered book 'The Foundations of Aesthetics Lost (you can see the pics here (image 13) : "The original Senses of Beauty have been parcelled up like a pack of mints and can be doled out on a whim. They are dispensable like flattery and kisses in the air." I came up with the idea of 'Sweet Nothings', a series of 14 romantic comment slips that can be doled out like mints. "I'd like to get to know you better", "We have so much in common", "Let's go somewhere more private", etc. read in succession begin to describe a common scenario. Sweet, or cynical: these are sweet nothings, dispensable flattery, or cheap chat-up lines, depending on your mood.
Handmade with tic tac boxes, ink jet-printed scented paper and glue.
Price£8



Received, With Thanks: A modern-day receipt book

A submission for the RE:experimental book exhibition curated by www.weloveyourbooks.com at University of Northampton. Artists were invited to choose a word beginning with 're' and make a bookwork based on it.
Once upon a time, women owned, or wrote, receipt books - or recipe books (from the Latin recipere: to receive or take) – which were passed down through the maternal line over generations, preserving family traditions and passing on common wisdom. They commonly held 100 entries, inc. recipes, treatments and mottoes. I had an idea some time ago to create a receipt book filled in with all the good and bad qualities I acquired from family, friends and partners.
My bookwork has brought the two concepts together, to encompass acknowledgements of qualities I inherited, learned and otherwise acquired from birth to my 50th year. The dates on the receipts relate to the entry: when I feel I acquired, learned or applied it. My 50th birthday is used as a general date to denote realisations gained with age and maturity.
With 100 entries, the modern-day Receipt Book relates to becoming an adult: recognition that life is a series of exchanges; what we receive we invariable give back, and in having gratitude for life. ‘Common wisdom’ comes through in realising life encompasses the good and the bad. The content has a confessional quality, but rather than being self-absorbed, or ponderous it briskly moves as a kind of train of thought, of self-reflection that spans a lifetime. Fun slide show here
Ink jet printed card, paper, Japanese stab bound with linen, glue
Exhibition showing at Artworks MK, July-Aug 08 and then RE: An exhibition of experimental books: a selection from the original exhibition, University of Portsmouth, Nov 08
Price£120



Retread

In addition to the main bookwork submission‚ we were also invited to submit a luggage tag. Retread continued with the theme of RE: (as in my Received book) creating a stream of consciousness sequence of 'road' phrases‚ expressions and song titles: the high road‚
the low road‚
middle-of-the-road‚
down the road.
Simple graphics depict road directions‚ printed and folded into a concertina. A progression develops‚ creating a new prose‚ which culminates in words quoted from Dante: 'Il cammin di nostra vita.* (The road of our life.) Retread is a going-over of steps taken‚ expressions used again‚ following the path of others. A luggage tag goes with us on our travels‚ and here it tells of its own travels. A new container is created for a book and some well-known lines are given a 'retread'. Slide show here of making this bookwork. This has also exhibited at The Bowery Gallery & in the shop‚ Leeds June-Aug 2008
Price £18