Manly Library Artists' Book Award selection

Last year Helen Malone and I  finished our collaborative book "The Future of an Illusion". (For details and images of this book please click the link.) Since we haven't had a chance to show our book , we were both delighted to be selected by 

the judges Michael Hedger and Ben Rak for exhibition in the 2017  Manly Library Artists' Book Award.

In addition I also had a little book I had made by myself accepted - "Redacted in Limbo".

“[Redacted] in Limbo is informed by my concerns for refugees who to come looking for freedom from persecution and a new life as migrants in Australia. The triangular is a metaphor for the tents they live in or the boats they use to make their journey.

The title of the book refers to source of the text which is from the “Nauru Files” published by the Guardian Newspaper in November, 2016. Most information of conditions in the camps and treatment of the refugees has been kept secret from the public by the Australian Government.

The book has felt covers from old Army blankets which have been waxed to make them still like sails and the book has been designed to stand up so that pages can be viewed and turned. Bitumen and canvas have also been used to suit the rugged outdoor feeling of the book and make it waterproof.. 

 The design uses some of the text from the “Nauru Files” and image repetitions of cut-out stencil people who are confused, damaged and mixed up as shown by the random crumpling of the paper, to a more ordered, peaceful one. 

The individual waxed pages of the book involve crumpling, and layering and repetition of images and text as metaphors for the mental health and physical damage caused by the harsh process used to settle our new citizens that came by boat. 

Although the crumpled marks can be smoothed they can never be removed.

"keer weer -turn again"

I am very excited that "Keer Weer" has been selected to be part of this years books for the Libris Awards at the Mackay Artspace and to be included with  such an esteemed company of book artists. As many of you may not be able to make it to Mackay to see all the books, I thought a blog of my entry may be good before the show opens and a possible site for all the participants work is established.

I like to use stylised imagery and text to  make artist books that examine our social and political anxieties. “Keer Weer – turn again” is informed by my concerns with the Australian Government’s treatment of asylum seekers who use boats to come to our island continent looking for freedom from persecution and a new life as migrants in Australia. 

The title of the book comes from the name of the spot in north Queensland where the first European landed in Australia. Capt Willem Janszoon from Holland arrived in his tiny vessel the Duyfken in 1606. He “turned back” of his own volition because he found the place unfriendly. The current, recent “turn backs” are more sinister and shameful.

The design is driven by layered word and image repetitions that change in tone as the book progresses from a darker to brighter more optimistic one. The individual pages of the book involve intense manual labour. This manual stressing and layering of the materials give the paper its special tactile quality.

The images of simple boats and the treatment of the Vietnamese paper with basic materials such as wax, turmeric and bitumen reference the cultural and hazardous conditions of the journeys. The resulting surface texture of the waterproof paper is soft and skin-like, pliable, despite its stressed treatment.

I have posted more pages and details on my Weebly site for those interested in detail and will add a few more here.

I made a wooden keel for the book so that it can be read and displayed in a wave like position. 

Re- Written

One of the most difficult decisions we make as artists is knowing when enough is enough or what would have happened if...? Recently I "finished" "Written" and blogged about it here. I'm working on another boat book and wanted to try out some images and revisited my earlier book to make the changes. Now that I've completely redone the original, I'm still not sure which works better. I think they both work but in different ways. One, the more spare economical mark maker and the other more worked and forceful. I had scanned the original for editioning if necessary so still have that copy as well.
I'll pop up a few more images and would be very interested in hearing your views. To revisit or leave alone??

And a few more....

So what do you think? The exercise was worthwhile because it freed me up to take more risks and make new discoveries. My new book is related but nothing like this,  I've used a lot of wax and bitumen this time to make the paper seriously waterproof.