Exhibition Workshop

Community workshop and 

guided tour of the Personal Histories exhibition

with Robyn Foster

11.00am - 3.00pm 

THURSDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2014

at

Redland Museum

Smith Street

Cleveland  Qld  4163
Australia

The workshop is aimed at beginning/intermediate book makers

and will focus on construction techniques for various concertina fold formats.

Cost for the day is $25.00.

RSVP to:

Robyn Foster

fostered@tpg.com.au

if you would like to participate

The online exhibition and POD catalogue are in production and will be available soon.
 Feature Artists posts will resume next week.

REDLAND MUSEUM EXHIBITION OPENING

Apologies for taking so long to post about the 

Personal Histories Redland Museum Exhibition Opening.

Influenza and fatigue got the better of me.

The exhibition opened in the 

Dunn Wing of the Redland Museum on Sunday 12 October 

with works from 64 artists living in 18 different countries.

(Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Korea, Latvia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America, Wales).

The exhibition was formally opened by Rick Thomason (Exhibitions Officer and Curator - Redland Museum) and Myann Burrows (Textile and Artists Book maker).

Kay Faulkner (textile artist), Robyn Foster (Coordinator Personal Histories), Myann Burrows (opening speaker), Rick Thomason (Exhibiitons Officer & Curator - Redland Museum)

It has taken 12 months of organisation to bring the exhibition to this point with communication mostly via email, website and blog.

Thanks must go to Rick Thomason and the ever supportive Redland Museum community as well as to each contributing artist for all their hard work in making and transporting their works.

Museums are time capsules of public human history and the concept for this exhibition was to allow individuals working in the forum of book arts the opportunity to share their own personal, private narratives in a public space.

Artists' books utilise the format or concept of a book in the form of artwork.  In our age of technology, artists books help connect us to a familiar, tactile past and a changing relationship with how we share and store information and images and give us the ability to creatively record our own stories.

Book Artists:  Virginia and Terence Uren (Canberra), Helen Malone (Brisbane - back to camera), Robyn Foster (Redland). (background) - Fiona Dempster & Barry Smith (Sunshine Coast), Annique Goldenberg (Northern NSW) 

The books in this exhibition vary widely in their construction and content and are a testament to the creative breadth of artists' book craftsmanship.

  

Some are handmade, some commercially printed, some altered book works, 

some unique works and some editions.

The form of the books range widely - with traditionally bound books, concertina fold formats, spiral bound books, pop-up books, unbound pages encased in slipcases, framed works, wall hung works, flag fold books, stitched books, wearable art, scrolls, books made of paper, books made of cloth and books made of natural fibres.

There are letterpress printed books, etched books, linocuts, cyanotype prints, hand drawn and painted books, digitally printed images, collaged books, hand cut books, woven pages.

There are myriad differences in the construction methods and techniques used to create these books, but each relates a tale of personal history and experience in a unique and original way.

Virginia and Terence Uren (Canberra book artists)

Whilst most books are encased or positioned for viewing,

there are a selection of books available for viewing on a supervised reading table.

An international textiles exhibition entitled "Exposition" opened alongside the Personal Histories exhibition, giving a great dynamic to the Museum space, with both exhibitions marrying well.

The exhibition runs until Sunday 30 November.

Exposition - Textiles Exhibition

REDLAND MUSEUM - EXHIBITION PREVIEW

The first Personal Histories exhibition opens tomorrow at 10am.

Heartfelt thanks to all the artists 

who have put their trust in this project over the last 12 months

 and contributed works to make this excellent show become a reality.

There are some truly amazing artworks (and personal histories) here.

Herewith a few snapshots taken at the end of installation this week.

Hopefully a few better quality images will be taken at the opening tomorrow.

I look forward to meeting all the artists who are attending tomorrow and throughout the show.

Feature Artist - AMY PIRKLE

AMY PIRKLE

is a book artist and letterpress printer from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 

Amy received her M.F.A. in Book Arts from the University of Alabama in 2007.  During her time in graduate school, she established Perkolator Press.  As a printer and book artist, her primary medium is letterpress and reduction relief, but she often employs other printmaking techniques as well.  Although her work stems from long-standing craft tradition of fine press and fine binding, she also enjoys integrating newer forms of technology into her books.  Familial relationships and memory are the major inspirations for her work.

A REAL FIGHTING MAN (2012)
is Amy's submission work for Personal Histories.

I printed A REAL FIGHTING MAN after spending a few days with my grandfather in south Georgia and looking through some snapshots of him serving in Korea in the early 1950's.  The photos instantly inspired me, mostly because of the descriptions my grandfather had written on the backs of the photos, including the phrase "A real fighting man".  The cover images are reduction linocuts based on two of these snapshots, while the spine image and flags are archival inkjet prints.  I created photopolymer plates of his cursive handwriting from the photos, and letterpress printed them along with a narrative he wrote about his time in Korea 50 years later.  The book attempts to convey my grandfather's struggle to regain a sense of normalcy after facing the horrors of war.

Kiyoko

Amy has enjoyed an active exhibition record and her work resides in Permanent Special Collections in almost 50 universities across the United States including the Art Institute of Chicago, Brown, RISD, Vanderbilt and Yale.  Amy currently teaches book arts, drawing, and design at The University of Alabama for the Department of Art, University Honors, and New College.

When You Are Old

The River

ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT OF THE ARTIST - AMY PIRKLE