"Change transform II"

 

In 2020,  Jonathon Oxlade and I made a varied edition of two books "Change  Transform" . One of these was entered in the Manly Artist Book Award 2021 and now 2 years later we have both revisited the remaining book to make "Change Transform II". The book will be entered in HARD design show curated by Calum Hurley in Melbourne Design Week 18 -21 May.

This book follows the same condition that in making any change, nothing must be subtracted or cut off the original.  However, in addition to folding, cutting and changing the shape of pages, we have made small additions to the pages by responding with thread or pigment to make marks that effect the change and transform the pages and provide a way of linking or seperating the pages. 

The book also makes use of colour and form to focus and link different pages in a gentle, suggestive manner. The collaboration produced new, exploratory results that excited both of us. 

Library Artists' Book Awards 2021

I was delighted to hear from Manly Library recently that my books have been selected to take part in this year's Library Artists' Book awards to be held at Manly Art Gallery and Museum. (I hope the even more recent news of a Covid cluster in the Northern Beaches and the management of the spread of the virus doesn't impact too much on this biennial event. I'm sure we will find out with plenty of notice.)

One of my books is the one I have just posted about- "Out of Breath" so will need no introduction. The other book done collaboratively with Jonathon Oxlade is "Change -Transform" and will be the subject of this little post.

front cover

Since Jonathon lives in Adelaide and his creative work takes him all over Australia, our collaboration was done at a distance, with the books traveling by mail and our discussions over the phone - normally a bit clunky but a perfect format for the Covid 19 restrictions. 

The book uses many types and shapes and textures of paper put together with just one rule for its construction and intervention- " change/transform the pages without removing any of the paper."

With this in mind, we set about making a little haptic book that works both visually and tactilely. The papers have been waxed, creased, momigammied, folded, torn, and scratched to provide a special vocabulary that needs no words.

 

The audience is invited to interact physically with the pages so that the book is in a constant state of flux.

"CRUZIN"

Started a little lighter but ....

became just a little more serious. 

I liked the cover - handmade paper cooked in beeswax with some of it ironed out again.

Notice, how can you possibly miss them?  the rough, uneven deckles and varied sizes of the pages ( after "Change - Transform") - 

But it was a very choppy journey!

 

"cut"

cover

I have been working on a little book "cut" for a "Personal Histories" exhibition at the Redland Art Gallery for some time since early last year. I was interested in using a rather awful experience (surgery for melanomas) and  transform it into something more positive and perhaps even beautiful. 

The pages were all waxed and scratched with pigment added to give the very tactile feeling of raw skin and open wounds. The cut semi-translucent paper allows you to see through several layers at once to give the impression of change and healing.
This was my second attempt, an earlier attempt was even more gorey and powerful but made a much appreciated gift to a good friend. 
I have included this book "cut" to show how an idea can change and develop by making several versions each with different emphasis.
However, I still found the result a little too strong and organic so I explored an even softer, more delicate option for my next book "blindspots" which I think worked better in the end.  

This third and final book, "blindspots", will be the one that has made the "Personal Histories" exhibition which opens in a few weeks time so I'll post it later for those of you that can't make it to the exhibition.