preserve .... a burnt book

It was my idea last year to suggest to Fiona that we do a 'burn book' and in my mind's eye I thought Fiona would hand me some pages of her lovely delicate burning with which to work, and in exchange I would hand over some very delicate but randomly burnt paper and somehow, magically, a soft pretty kind of burn book would emerge.  Ha!  Things don't often  work out as you see them in your minds' eye and this book couldn't be more different from the one I envisaged.

That being said, the challenge has resulted in a book that I would have to say is probably my favourite.  The resulting book looks quite simple but it took months of head wrangling and stomach aching to reach this point.  Fiona's work is very distinctive and when I was presented with seven pages of her gorgeous calligraphy about the burning of books, and ideas that can't be destroyed but fly onwards, I knew I had some serious thinking to do.  To somehow take apart her work and make it mine, and yet because her words were profound, I needed to find my own words, my own reason for bringing this book into being.

In July last year I committed to a project called 'Absence and Presence' - a printmaking project as part of a large ongoing body of work across the globe called 'Mutanabbi Street Starts Here'.  Instigated and co-ordinated by Beau Beausoleil who is based in San Francisco, this work has been in direct response to the bombing of Al Mutanabbi Street, the cultural precinct of Baghdad in 2007. Home to intellectuals, printers, writers, book shops and coffee shops for centuries.  I have yet to make my prints (I have until July this year) but my mind is always ticking over ideas and thus the burning of books, the destruction of priceless treasures, the preservation of books and so on has been on my mind for some time. For longer still is the heartache I feel every time I read of, or hear of the wilful destruction of libraries and the burning of books.  

I am a great fan of asemic writing and rarely use explicit text in my work.  Never in fact.  this book however has two layers of written text.  Not hugely legible because it is engraved into the perspex with a dremel, but if you try hard you can read what is being said.  The black writing is done on the inside of the book and then inked so in fact the writing is then reversed.  I have listed some of the atrocities perpetrated by human intent upon libraries from pre 206BC when Qin Shi Huang had order the burning of books and burying of scholars in Xianyang, Qin China through to the latest heartbreak in Mosul were ISIS burnt 8000 rare books and manuscripts.  

The burning, and there was a great deal of it done to these pages, and then the writing down of these details about the destruction of Libraries throughout history, left me feeling quite desolate.  I had downloaded an article about the burning of books in Mosul by ISIS in the Fiscal Times by Riyadh Mohammed written on February 23 about half way through the article was this lovely passage ...

'900 years ago, the books of the Arab philosopher Averroes were collected before his eyes ..... and burned.  One of his students started crying while witnessing the burning. Averroes told him ..... the ideas have wings .... but I cry today over our situation.'

I thought about using those words ' ideas have wings' in this book, but instead, wrote on the outside of the book, or I should say engraved with an etching needle, the words from one of my very favourite poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins - God's Grandeur.  You can read these words quite clearly if you go hunting across the pages - they don't leap out but they are there.  I have included a copy of this poem at the end of this post.

In my previous post I did mention that there had been enormous difficulties in the making of this book and many of those were due to the structure/construction of the perspex.  I was going to write of these difficulties but really, they are not important.  I am pleased with the result of this book and though it certainly is not the first perspex book I have made, I have included new ideas and techniques in this one which I will use again.  This collaboration of Fiona's and mine certainly does push us but each time we complete a book, we find we have learnt something new about techniques and mostly about ourselves and the way we see and thus make.

I do need to add for those of you who may be looking around for the burnt paper which was to be my contribution, and with which you have seen me play in the last couple of posts.  I decided not to use any of it.  The paper added nothing to the concept of this book and felt superfluous so I felt quite happy to just put it aside.

a pity to have to photograph the book with a white paper background as you lose the effect of the burnt fragments being suspended in the perspex - much like specimens on a slide

this photo gives you a better idea of the floating and layering between pages

some evidence of my text

pity about my reflection - or the cameras' reflection

do love this blue and will intentionally be bringing blue over and through some of my earthy work

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89).  Poems.  1918.

7. God’s Grandeur

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.   It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;   It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod? Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;         5   And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;   And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.   And for all this, nature is never spent;   There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;         10 And though the last lights off the black West went   Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs— Because the Holy Ghost over the bent   World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

what not to do .....

I have finally finished my 'burn book'.  Tick.  The books meet on Wednesday and Fiona and I are pretty excited to see what we have come up with, considering the starting point we both had.  This was one of those collaborations in theme and materials and we haven't actually spent time together working on the books so neither of us has any idea what the other book looks like.  There must be a resemblance of course as we are working with the same materials.  Watch out for our posts on Wednesday night.

For the last LONG while it seems, I have been playing with ideas for this book and most of that time seemed to come up with ideas which were much more along the lines of what not to do ....

We are hoping that these two books will form the centrepiece or highlight of our collaboration so it is quite an important book and as such necessitated quite a deal of thought and work.  The photographs below are nothing like my book, but they were very earnest efforts in trying to visualise a way forward.  To no avail.  They make quite interesting photographs though, and maybe on a small scale, would work very beautifully as a book.  But not this time.

As well as learning what not to do, I have learnt a great deal about burning, controlled burning.  Well mostly.  The house remains standing and I still have all my curls and eyebrows.  Seriously though, I have learnt techniques about controlling burns to achieve the effect you are wanting.  Not always easy where paper and fire are involved.

    I am heading off on Thursday for  two weeks.  An artist  friend Steph McLennan  and I are heading
   over to New Zealand to stay at Moeraki on the South Island.  There we will be working with the 
   Moeraki Boulders .... finding heaps of inspiration I hope.

continuing with burning .....

Way back in September, Fiona and I began work on our next collaborative book and since then life has intervened with my creativity in this direction and it is only now that I am back working on this project.  You can see the exchange Fiona and I made in my post of 24th September 2014 and will notice that I received beautifully handwritten pages from Fiona when I handed over some ragged burnt paper to her. There was a slight misunderstanding in how we both conceived our exchange which was quite rare for us.  However, with these beginnings we have been challenged to make our books and last week I set to deconstructing some of Fiona's pages.  It is always a challenge to take apart someone else's work and make it look more like your own, and yet, because you are working collaboratively and want to see the other's work in each piece, leave enough of the work to recognise.

I have been getting some interesting results in burning away at Fiona's pages - always having plenty of water and wet cloths close by to put out flames as they occur.  I am looking forward to taking my own burnt pages in a few different directions now that I have a sense of where I am heading with these ones.  Although I haven't moved on with the artwork, I have solved a number of the technical problems I foresaw  in the construction of this book.

Each page is quite large - approximately 54 cms x 19 cms and there will be seven pages forming a concertina book within perspex.  I have sewn large perspex books before and am not really looking forward to that stage of this book.  The deconstruction and burning is appealing to me so much more.  I hope all the ideas I am am juggling around in my head will be able to be realised and that this book will be ready to meet Fiona's next Wednesday when we have our 'bookmeet'.

These photographs were taken in fairly dull light and are bit fuzzy .....

Playing around with the idea of engraving on the perspex - both inside and on the outer side as well.
I will have to think about what to write so that it looks more effective than these scribbles but I do like the effect.

bends not stop signs .....

It is not often that Fiona and I find ourselves on different wavelengths but this was one of those times.  We met today to begin the ninth of our collaborative books.  A burnt book.  My understanding was that we would each burn our pages and then swap half of them  Fiona's was that we would each work on our own pages and then after the exchange, we would burn them!   

Both of us were more than willing to scrap our work and start again but really that is contrary to the nature of our collaboration and so in some manner yet to be determined, we will use my burnt pages and Fiona's written pages, to make our books.  We decided to roll along the bends or curves that have been thrown at us and not see them as stop signs.  Actually we are both pretty excited about this one as it has endless possibilities as we have never imposed rules.

I think it is quite an exciting starting point and my challenge will be to get the book looking like 'me' when Fiona's beautifully strong work is so much her.  As Fiona says - burn and deconstruct. The photographs show this readily and without need for elaboration.  The pages are 50cm by 15cms, seven of them each.  Quite large, but who knows how they will rearrange themselves.

Watch this space but not in any rush as we both have a fairly frenetic time ahead.  The books will meet at the end of January though you may have peeks along the way.

valuable days .....

Some days are just spent in a very valuable way and yesterday was one.  Fiona and I began our eighth collaborative artists' books and each time we seem to be confronted with a new set of struggles.  I guess that is really what this collaboration has been about .... pushing ourselves in directions we would otherwise not wander, certainly not alone.  Not that we encounter dark alleys but we do meander off course, through woods and out into the sunshine at various points along the walk.

Fiona posted very thoroughly on the process this collaboration is taking, using the cards designed by Julie Chen and Barbara Tetenbaum so there is no need for me to elaborate further.  Just visit Fiona's blog .....

So, our books will be abstract ones with multiple openings, asymmetrical with multiple muted colours.  They will have no text yet be high tech.  Simultaneously they must be photographic, simple and miniature.  After discussions on all these words and concepts, Fiona and I decided that miniature could also mean macro, detailed.  And as if this is not enough the books must be issue based and yet personal.  Phew.  It think it has taken us the last couple of months just to assimilate and juggle all those ideas and now we are moving forward with our books.

I already know that we will squirm and wriggle about with the ideas and perceived difficulties of using these prescribed parameters, and yet I am sure that we will end up being glad we swallowed and followed the guidelines. Already we are exploring new techniques which will give us the way forward with our thoughts.

borer markings 

some gorgeous wood marks, badly inked ..... I am learning not to leave lines right through the middle

texture marks

a cut slab end piece from one of the huge trees which came down in the cyclone last year

Burning off the beautifully smooth timber brings back all the lovely interesting marks.
The slab was full of chain saw marks and uneven cut marks and my friend Wade who works with wood, worked his magic on both sides of the slab so that I have almost glassy smooth wood from which to print.

A coat of shellac provides the necessary layer between the wood and the ink.

Sublime marks, the second pull is deliciously transparent on fine Japanese paper.

mmmmm - learning to blend ink on wood

I often prefer the subtlety of the back of work done on fine papers.

Now I need to work out how to use these marks and make the work 'mine'.

All these ideas and the last two postings on playing with wood, are leading towards the making of this book marking the memory of trees.

my bird book .....

It is such a joy to share some photographs of my completed book ... well not quite as I have yet to name it and make its slip case.

Struggle though it has been, this book and I are now firm friends.  I wasn't sure that was going to be the case but once I let go of the fact that although I had done a number of etchings towards this book, I need not use them in an illustrative manner but find another way of relating this story.  After all, that is what these books are all about - narrative.  It doesn't mean one has to tell all, but certainly the imagery should prompt the viewer to discover their own story.  

There are thirteen pages to my book and the etchings have been done either on Japanese Tengujo paper or the lovely warm Fabriano Tiepolo.  After cutting down images, they were then mounted in an embossed frame onto a gorgeous Magnani paper almost 600 gsm thick. I decided on using a natural linen thread and left some of the stitching with length to emulate the twigs of a birds nest.  A number though not all of the eggs have been placed underneath the soft Japanese paper as I wanted the them suggested rather than dominant. Overall dimension of the page is 45cms x 7cms.  I will make an edition of 7 only as there is so much effort in making each book even with the etching plates completed.  The book is made up from seven separate etchings which need to be printed before I can even begin the process of designing and making the book. The etchings will be an open edition.

The completed book may be folded and read in any number of ways.

I like the way the thread hangs out from the book twig like.

The embossing I made for Fiona's book can be seen here in mine too.

I think the colour here in the nest and in other parts of the book suggests early morning sunshine.

Some of the details before the book was sewn.

Fiona's beautiful wording can be seen here very subtly.

Thoughts

rest your wings.

Here is a hollow

of silence,

a nest of stillness,

in which to hatch

your dreams.

These words by Joan Walsh Anglund were found by Fiona and very kindly shared with me in this book giving our works another point of collaboration.