End of Redland Art Gallery Exhibition

The doors have closed today on the

100Book: A Personal Histories International Artists' Book Exhibition

at Redland Art Gallery.

It has been a brilliant exhibition with lots of positive feedback from gallery visitors and staff.

Since the opening night event we have had two artist's floor talks, three guided walk throughs and one bookmaking workshop.

I have been very remiss in not putting any posts up on the blog over the run of the show, but I hope you will be bear with me as I get back on track.

I would like to share with you some of opening speaker, Jan Davis', words about the exhibition and about the practice of artist book making:

This exhibition of books is presented in a climate we are constantly told, of diminished reverence for the book,  for the feel of the book, a time when people are supposedly turning away from reading a bound object held in their hands, turning towards reading from a screen.  The 100book exhibition brings together artists who aspire to reignite our relationship with the book.

Why do artists make books?

There are many answers, but I want to talk about just two reasons that are powerfully demonstrated in this exhibition, (and I don't use that adjective lightly).

1. books can tell a story: they are open to presenting a narrative in a way that many single stand-alone works of art, such as a painting, a print or a piece of sculpture are not.  A sequence of pages (not necessarily covered in words) gives an opportunity to develop a concept, to draw out or build an idea.  And many artists, as you will see in this exhibition, have a complex story to tell.

2. books are intimate: they are quiet objects of contemplation.  They take time, time to make, and they reward time spent reading them.  They feel intimate in the making, they lure we bookmakers into revealing quite a lot about ourselves and others.  Being with a book takes us to a very private place.

Viewers of this exhibition will recognise the narrative and the intimacy in the books and in the artists' statements that support them.

CATHERINE KIRKPATRICK (USA) writes that in creating these images her immediate family and ancestors came into her mind, their births, their life's journeys that led to her being born in New York City.  She writes "I see their triumphs and struggles, and in my work I honour them'.

JAQUELINE BALMER - UNITED KINGDOM (LANCASHIRE) in describing her project "Was she the one who?", which involved working with old family photographs, writes 'Names were forgotten, or attributed to the wrong face, anecdotes were confused and embellished.  Now, not knowing who these people were, we read stories into their images based on their expressions, their clothing or surroundings.  Some of the stories you may read in these images are more accurate than others'.

HELEN SANDERSON (AUSTRALIA) in her work 'My grandmother was a Dear: The female line - Tracing the invisible women and those who came later', her 4th book records some of the lace passed down to her from these women.  Lace pressed against their skins - Narratives and intimacy indeed!

This exhibition also demonstrates a key aspect of the artist's book community and that is their capacity to build and sustain communities of makers.  Robyn (Foster) has tapped into existing national and international networks of artists making books to invite participation in this project and to also promote and disseminate information about the exhibition.  She has created new communities and is continuing to do that.

Redland Museum - Over and Out

The Personal Histories Exhibition at Redland Museum has drawn to a close, 

with the last day of viewing being Sunday November 30.

I send a huge thanks and congratulations to all artists 

who have been involved with this first stage of the project.

The exhibition has been a huge success with a great deal of interest being shown in each and every artwork, the overall concept of artists' books, the variety of constructs and mediums employed by artist book makers and also the personal stories contained within the artworks.  There have been a well attended opening, a large number of visitors throughout the run, private group viewings, curator talks, a one-day workshop and visits from participating artists from both Australia and overseas (notably Sara & Theresa from Michigan, USA and Kyoung from Busan, Korea).

The exhibition will remain permanently online on the Personal Histories Website for all to view.

(The online catalogue is still a work in progress due to a file problem, and lack of time to sort it out properly, but hopefully this will be fixed shortly.  Apologies if this has caused anyone inconvenience.)

The exhibition has been dismantled and now comes the huge task of packaging and posting artworks back to artists, approaching institutions to house donated artworks, and/or storing artworks for the Personal Histories exhibition in Canberra in late 2015. 

One contingency I didn't factor in is that parcels being returned may get caught up in the Christmas post deluge.  Hopefully this doesn't impact negatively upon anyone.

Of course, the story is far from over with the next Personal Histories exhibition (with a working subtitle of 100book) opening at Redland Art Gallery on 27 March 2015.

I will be emailing gallery forms to be completed by those participating in this next leg of the project shortly, with a reminder that works are to be delivered by Friday 13 March 2015 at the latest.

World War I Adjunct Exhibit

I am looking to make a small adjunct exhibit to

the Personal Histories exhibition to be held in April/May of 2014
based around the theme of World War I.

If any artists have works relative to this theme I would be interested to hear from you.

Split Shifts

I am pleased to say there are well over 100 artists now 

involved with the Personal Histories exhibition.

I have been deliberating long and hard as to how to do justice to each and every artist and their work and after discussions with gallery directors I have made the decision to  split  Personal Histories into two exhibitions.

Each exhibition will be held in professionally run gallery spaces with commensurate facilities and

in a similar locale.  

I will also be adding media components to the exhibition in order to show all the contributing artworks in the one space.

The only difference in exhibitions will be in timing as the original exhibition is scheduled for October/November 2014 and the second gallery will not be available until  April/May of 2015.

I apologise for the mid-flight change in arrangements but I feel this is the most satisfactory way of ensuring every work is shown to its maximum advantage.

Although it is less than ideal to have to split the exhibition, I find it very heartening and humbling that so many artists from around the globe have decided to take part in this project.

I welcome your comments and if there are any artists involved who find issue with this  arrangement,  I encourage you to contact me via email to discuss your concerns and/or wishes.

The cut off date for submission forms will remain Friday 22nd August 2014.

I will email each artist directly to discuss the changes.