Doug Spowart and Victoria Cooper document Personal Histories at UNSW

Fellow Australian book artists

Doug Spowart and Victoria Cooper

Image: Doug Spowart + Victoria Cooper wotwedid blogsite

have posted a wonderful reference to their experience of 

the Personal Histories Opening Night Event at UNSW Canberra on their wotwedid blog site.

The post includes a written overview of their thoughts on the exhibition, documentary photographs including images of participating artists Judy Bourke and Tracie Toohey, also links to video footage of a walkthrough of some of the exhibition -

including a guest appearance by Canberra based artist
 Caren Florance and opening speeches from Selena Griffith, Lisa Morisset (UNSW Library) and Robyn Foster.

This is a marvellous resource for any one who could not physically get to visit the exhibitions and I highly recommend following the link to have a look at this post and to explore the wealth of information in other posts.

I can't thank Doug and Victoria enough for making the journey to the Canberra opening and for generously creating and sharing this documentary resource with all of us.

Doug Spowart was 2014 Siganto Foundation Research Fellow at the Australian Library of Art, State Library of Queensland.

Dr Victoria Cooper is 2015 Siganto Foundation Research Fellow at the Australian Library of Art, State Library of Queensland. 

(footnote re footage: I was a little disturbed to see one lovely person's blatant disregard for gallery etiquette, but I can assure everyone {especially Janet Braun-Reinitz - whose artwork was in imminent peril}, no artworks were harmed during the making of this footage)

Personal Histories at UNSW - End of Exhibition

The Personal Histories Exhibition at UNSW Canberra Campus finishes today.

I'll be making the 4 day round trip shortly from Brisbane to Canberra to dismantle and collect the works before returning home to send works back to artists.

Of course, being the Christmas holiday period, there may be hiccups in getting items sent off quickly, but I will endeavour to do my best - (and just a gentle reminder that artists are responsible for reimbursement of postage costs please).

I'd appreciate any artists who may have changed address since the beginning of the project to get in touch with me to update their address details. Also, if artists would like me to hold off on return of works due to holiday absences etc. I'd be most appreciative to hear from you as well.

Some artists have asked me not to return works, but instead donate them to appropriate collections in Australia, if this is your wish please contact me to arrange for this.  

Thanks again to all the artists worldwide who have given such wonderful support to this project, the institutions (Redland Museum, Redland Art Gallery Cleveland, ABBE at QCA and UNSW Canberra Campus) who have exhibited and championed the works (or part thereof) and the wonderful audiences who have given such positive feedback to the project and works over the last two years.

Personal Histories at ABBE

I took a sample of Personal Histories artworks to the artists' book fair at  

Artists Books Brisbane Event (abbe) 

which ran over three days 16-18th July 2015 

at QCA Griffith University, Southbank Brisbane.

This was a great venue to show some of the wonderful works

which have formed part of the overall exhibitions to a very interested audience.

Head on over to the official 

abbe website 

to see lots of photographs, see who was there and to read more about the event.

Doug Spowart & Victoria Cooper also have a wonderful article on their blog

wotwedid

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.

Installation Week & Opening Night - Redland Art Gallery Cleveland

 100 Books: A Personal Histories International Artists' Book Exhibition

has opened to a very enthusiastic audience at 

Redland Art Gallery Cleveland (Queensland, Australia).

Congratulations to all the contributing artists involved.

It was an honour and a pleasure to have Jan Davis officially, and very eloquently, 

open the exhibition with Redland Art Gallery Director Stephanie Lindquist (in the blue dress below) acting as MC.

 

Exhibiting artist's books since the late 1980's,  

Jan Davis has undertaken duties as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Southern Cross University, is Vice President of the Print Council of Australia and is one of two Siganto Foundation Fellows currently based at the Australian Library of Art ( State Library of Queensland).  As part of her fellowship, Jan has chosen to research historical diaries and farm records from the John Oxley collection which she will transfigure into artists' books. 

The Redland Art Gallery exhibition holds 110 works in total 

with contributing artists from 16 countries.

100 works form the main body of the exhibition along with 10 works in an adjunct display which focuses on the centenary of WWI from a perspective of personal/family connections.

As the exhibition coincides with school holidays here, there is a dedicated area for children to create and display book art, with books referencing childhood in close proximity (all safely under perspex covers - of course).  We already have some wonderful examples after an enthusiastic response from the young people in attendance last night.

There is a reading table area where books are able to be read and touched.

I will be hosting a floor talk at the gallery at 11.30am Sunday 29 March 2015. 

Helen Malone will host a floor talk focusing on the WWI artworks at 11.30am Friday 24 April 2015.

Workshops are planned for this afternoon as well.  For details contact the gallery directly.

There are also artists' groups who have organised guided, white gloves tours throughout the run of the exhibition after having had tours of the first Personal Histories exhibition at Redland Museum in October 2014.

Many thanks to the Redland Art Gallery staff for their tireless efforts and skill in making exhibitions like this a reality.

Exhibition runs through until Sunday 10 May.

Feature Artist: KAREN HARDY

KAREN HARDY

is a visual artist currently living in San Antonio, Texas.

She works primarily with innovative hand paper making techniques in a variety of forms, including artist books, sculpture and installation.  Her practice is centered on an experimental approach to materials, influenced by her background in the natural sciences.

A graduate of the book arts & printmaking MFA program at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Karen's work is part of prominent national collections and is widely exhibited both nationally and internationally.  Her artists books have recently received awards in exhibitions at the Northern Arizona University Art Museum and the University of Utah's J. Willard Marriott Library.

Karen has been awarded a Denbo Fellowship by Pyramid Atlantic Art Center and a College Book Art Association Project Assistance grant.  She has also recently been artist-in-residence at the Picante Paper and Book Arts Studio at the Southwest School of Art.

Curiosity about materials is my primary motivation as an artist. My creative process involves intuitive experimentation with the expressive properties of materials and the associations that they carry. My artist books, sculpture, and two-dimensional work often begin with paper that I make by hand, and their meaning is inseparable from their physical materials.  I am fascinated by biological forms and systems. Consciously or not, my selection and manipulation of materials often yields work that is vaguely evocative of living organisms and bodily processes. I am especially drawn to paper pulp made from overbeaten abaca and flax for its organic, corporeal effect. This material layers and interacts with light in compelling ways, capable of being beautifully luminous and uncomfortably grotesque at once. Its translucent, membrane-like quality suggests a blurred boundary between interior and exterior, private and public, protected and vulnerable. Much of my work explores this liminal state, inviting the viewer into a realm of duality and ambiguity.

Two of Karen's works have been part of the Personal Histories project:

SEPARATE

focuses on the various roles we fill throughout our lives as both caregiver and dependant.  My intent is to highlight the conflict between the instinct to nurture and the desire to be unencumbered, the push and pull between dependence and independence, and our vacillation between vulnerability and strength.  In this book, the paper itself becomes a vehicle for exploring the variety of emotion encompassed in these relationships.  

The handmade flax pages contain egg-shaped openings partially filled with delicate abaca membrane, echoing the longing present in the text.

MIS-DIRECT-ION RE-DIRECT-IVE

is a journey through progressive stages from passivity to action.  The text and imagery describe a struggle to overcome a state of apathy and indecision caused by fear and regret.  Because the handmade abaca paper is translucent, as many as three or four sheets can be visible simultaneously when layered, creating an evolving visual narrative that comes in and out of focus much as mental clarity may wax and wane.  

The book is composed of twelve double-sided 4" x 11" (10cm x 28cm) prints, bound with a modified long stitch in a variable edition of five.

ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT OF THE ARTIST KAREN HARDY

Feature Artist: JOHN RETALLACK

JOHN RETALLACK

is a photographic artist from Rochester, New York.

John has an extensive and varied career in the photographic arts.   Since working in arts education at The School of Visual Arts NYC and Rochester Institute of Technology, School of Photographic Arts & Sciences, John now devotes his time and talents to his own freelance commercial and fine art photography projects.   John has participated consistently in  public exhibitions since 1973 with works in numerous publications and private and public collections including Wallace Memorial Library Archives, George Eastman House, Monroe Community Hospital, Russian Fine Art Photographers Union and Iron County Museum.

John explains himself on his website in 10 points:

1. Born in Michigan's Upper Peninsular:  Became a Yooper.

2. Got his first camera, age 10

3. Joined a MASH unit (US Army) and was trained as an X-Ray technician

4. Stationed in Germany during the Cold War

5. Studied photography at Rochester Institute of Technology, BFA Degree

6. Freelanced in New York City shooting magazines & ad agencies

7. Began teaching career at the School of Visual Arts in NYC

8. Accepted a teaching position at RIT which led to Tenure in the 

School of Photographic Arts & Sciences

9. Quit working at RIT (early retirement)

10. Continues freelancing in photography, doing things he's always wanted to do.

John's contribution to the Personal Histories exhibition is a touching and intriguing entry entitled 

"All My Love, Mike".

It is a collection of images and text on loose pages housed in a hand made clam-shell box.

"Dad was drafted in 1942.  He was a surgeon.  First he was sent to Texas to train with other doctors in an Army Hospital unit.  Mom followed him there.  When he was sent to the South Pacific she went back home to Michigan.  For Christmas in 1944 she traveled to Denver to stay with relatives for a few months.  Every day, as much as possible, they exchanged letters.  Mom would enclose pictures, mostly of their new son, me, which he was eager to see.

After their deaths, within a few months of each other, I found Dad's letters and Mom's pictures hidden in separate places.  The pictures I examined immediately but held the letters for years before I was able to read them.  This book is a tribute to the love, respect and longing I witnessed in the letters.

This book was created in 2014 over a period of about 3 months.  I am responsible for all scanning, photography and assembly.  After some deliberation I decided that the pages should be loose and in a box as the original letters and pictures were.

The text was scanned from letters to my mother (70 total) covering dates from September 1944 to February 1945 (the only ones I have).  The pictures were scanned from snapshots found in a book where Dad had kept them.  The backgrounds used in some of the pages were created in the studio.  Text, pictures and backgrounds were assembled and printed from InDesign and printed to archival standards.  The box was created with Canapetta Bookcloth and Flanders British Tan bonded leather, also to archival standards."

ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT OF THE ARTIST - JOHN RETALLACK