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.

"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. 

positive and negative space books

Helen Malone and I have just finished our latest collaborative project "MINUS PLUS EQUAL"  (- + = ). Once again we were inspired by two visiting German book artists , Ulrike Stolz and Uta Schneider who were here as guests of the State Library of Qld. 
Despite our collaborations taking longer than working alone but we both seem to get more out of each other and explore areas we would not when we work alone.

Helen Malone has also blogged about this little project and has outlined our thinking very well so I won't repeat the process. As this is our third collaboration (our last was "Chance"), we are getting to know each other aesthetically and trust each other more than at first. That should make it possible to move more quickly but we seem quite happy working at a mutually comfortable speed.

The optical illusions that happen when working with positive and negative space were amazing and it is easy to see why this intrigues so many artists and designers.
We are both looking forward to continuing our collaborative projects as well as working individually in 2015.

the plastered 32 teeth of an adult

detail

Just finished a great little collaboration with a fellow book artist in Western Australia - Trace Willans.

It was a type of collaboration I had not encountered before and I think it worked out quite well although I have not discussed this in detail with Trace to see how she feels. 

Trace prepared and made two, little three page plaster books to which she added some marks,  images and collage. She made these deliberately minimal, leaving lots of scope for additional interventions. The pages are of board covered in plaster bandage hinged together with fabric, quite rough and textured.

original input by Trace

The problem is just how much do you interact with the work without completely smothering it and loosing the other artist's contribution. I decided to make very minimal changes to the nature and the structure of the book but allow more changes to the imagery. I hope I have done the original "design seeds" justice by letting them develop while still retaining some of their origin. 

I think I failed in the middle one by making the changes too strong. Trace can interact with these pages again if she wishes and get a better balance if she thinks this necessary. I wish we weren't so far apart and this process could be repeated more easily and often, till we are both happy that no further change is needed. The final book may not look exactly like this at all.

"altered" pages

detail showing image and surface

The details shows how the textured surface has been enhanced by the use of wax which has been scratched and etched into. The pages are hinged so that different combinations of pages can be viewed singly or together in pairs or threes.

At this stage Trace has one book and I have kept the other but we might swap after a while to see how they have evolved further. Here are some images of the second book. Unfortunately we don't have any "before" photos of this one.

Collaborations of all sorts seem to involve some level of compromise and sharing of the final work by both participants. If these are equally shared the result can take you to places you never would have gone on your own. This was certainly the case for me in this instance. 

relations and friends

song for Tamara

Tam's increasing rain

It always amazes me how important an appreciative audience is to our art practice. Even though most artists work largely for themselves and not for popular acclaim, it's always nice to be appreciated. As Monet said "the best compliment someone can give you, is to buy your art."

















Some of the framed images from the artist books "Re-Medial" and "Drawings to Cy" in "Mind Mapping" were not available singly as I didn't want to break up a collection of related work. There was however, a lot of interest in these more abstract images and several purchase enquiries were made to gallery staff.

I have been working in this direction for a while and have been able to offer some work to interested patrons.


So now I have some new drawings to give my niece in Melbourne, Tamara, and my friend Wim de Vos in West End Brisbane who will use his in one of his perspex constructions. I hope they meet their expectations.

i'll pay you for that

artist talk

Emma Bain introduction

Emma's talk in main gallery

"Bach'Coda" Artist book and bemused audience

interested booksters

Some photos from the artist 's talk on Wednesday 9th May 2012 at the Redland Art Gallery. Emma Bain gave an interesting trip through some of the works in the main gallery followed by a talk and exploration of Mind Mapping in the smaller galleries by myself. I have some initial photos of the work on my flickr link but will try to improve these as they are not clear.

mind mapping

Caitlin Sheedy's beautiful work

The main show "Life's Journey" was excellent with many outstanding books of all sorts. One of my favourites was Caitlin Sheedy's "The 199" on loan from the SLQ collection. Helen Cole has made a great selection from their vast collection (including two books by my new BAO friend Helen Malone) to which Noreen Grahame added work from Grahame Galleries + Editions. The range and display of the work was a credit to the curators Emma Bain from Redland Art Galleryand Anna Thurgood from Mackay Art Space.
 The "Mind Mapping" exhibition went well, lots of people showed interest in an aspect of my work hitherto kept hidden. I realise it's not necessarily everyone's cup of tea and I was a bit reticent to show at first, but now I'm glad I did. It was great catching up with lots of friends I hadn't seen for years but as usual didn't get much time to chat. There were  many expert bookmakers and printmakers who were all very supportive.But
it's always a relief when the "Opening" has passed and the show can hang  by itself  for us to visit and explore.
I promised some photos but haven't taken any yet much too crowded and not really possible or appropriate at the opening. I will go back and take some when it's quiet and make a little album in flickr. In the mean time, a friend contacted me and sent me some shots she took with her phone. She has given me permission to give you access to her blog at http://heyharriet.blogspot.com.au/ This might give you some little idea of the exhibition. The installation team under Emma Bain's expert direction have done an outstanding job. I feel so lucky to be part of it all.

covered

I've just started picking some of this year's pomegranates. Although they are beautiful inside, their waxy outside skin, complete with scratches and little scars is just gorgeous. I've tried to capture some of this quality in the cover of an artist book I'm making at the moment. (I hope you can see it in the photo -it's a bit subtle)

The little book "Transparent" is part of a great collaborative project run by Book Art Object, a great group all interested in the many types and forms of artist books. Involvement with this group through their blog has been incredibly rewarding and satisfying. Check out the link if you are interested in the nitty -gritty of making my cover.

waxing paper

before and after pomegranate treatment

prototype cover

finally

Wow! After a long delay caused by the 2011 Queensland floods and other events, an exhibition planned several years ago will finally face the glare of public scrutiny. My little diaries and artist books in "Mind Mapping" will open on May 6 at the Redland Art Gallery. It will accompany the main exhibition "Life's Journey" - Artist books from Queensland collections curated by Emma Bain and Anna Thurgood in partnership with Artspace Mackay , the State Library of QLD and Grahame Galleries + editions.

Redland Art Gallery is a small regional non-commercial gallery which hosts a very diverse range of shows every year and I'm very excited about being included in a show around artist books, an area not often encountered by the general public. This makes it a little nervous for me as I will be showing aspects of my work hitherto only shared with other artists.

Some of the  works in the exhibition were first shown on this blog when I first started blogging in 2009 and no idea of an exhibition existed. They are all works in progress, like me, my wife tells me. As my old blog followers will know, my first blog showed some work from "Tokyo Diary".and some of these now see the light of day. Other work on my blog that may also appear includes: "No Thanks" and "Next Station" and "Margins".
Artist books are always difficult to show in galleries and I hope this show works out well. After the exhibition opens I will take some photos to share with you.

beginnings

We've just had three days of incredibly heavy rain, lovely for my tank and garden but also a lovely start to my new artist book project with Book Object Art. When it's fine I have trouble chasing distractions like my garden, swimming, children and grandchildren before I settle down to some art practice. Naturally this doesn't always leave me much time to sink my teeth in. I've been jotting down my thoughts and exploring media possibilities and probably found more things that maybe won't work than actual solutions. But since I want to make something I haven't tried before I expect to find a lot of blind alleys and dead ends. I'll make these the starting points for my next assignment so the circle keeps going as I find solutions to old problems in new ways.My theme is "Transparency" and I've been playing with some of my old X-rays - can't think of a nicer thing than chopping them up a bit, scratching into them and making new images, now that they've outlived their usefulness.

I have been inspired attending my friend  Robyn Foster's exhibition of altered books here in Cleveland. The exhibition opened last week-end and runs for a while. Check out Rob's blog for a taste of her stunningly creative books and details of her exhibition. The sheer volume of beautiful creative books makes me feel very lazy and unfocussed. The precious little works were mostly housed in museum display cases at the Cleveland Museum, an ideal venue for the difficult task of displaying artist books. So thanks Rob, I'm finally off the ground and a lot more focussed. (Having a deadline probably helps a bit too.)

I don't usually document my creative processes or keep details of materials of my artist books but have decided to keep a notebook with all sorts of useful information this time round. I'm sure it will be helpful for future projects as my memory is becoming increasingly unreliable. Also, I'm finding that reading the way other artists work is interesting and helpful and keeping records very important in collaborations.

NOTES

Found a great Artist book site and have added "Notes" to their collection. Must keep exploring but also making. "Notes" is 100 x 80mm, three little books bound together in zig-zag form. Each book explores different themes using mixed media. A one-off exploratory work. See more "Notes" in an earlier posting.

TRAVEL HEADS III

I've just listed another little zine “Travel Heads III”  containing 6 colour photo-copies in zig-zag book format in my store micro. The colour laser copied images are from my visual diary “Travel Heads”,  I finished  a few years ago using mixed media. The cover size is 150 x 105mm with the colour images a little smaller. All my little books are copyright Jack Oudyn so please don’t reproduce any part of my work without my permission. I still  have some of the original art and it will be given a public airing at Redland Art Gallery in May, 2012.

“Travel Heads III” is in a limited edition of 30 and each book is numbered and signed by the artist.

little books stranded

All my remaining little "Fish Books" are now listed on micro , (my first attempt at setting up an online store) with some of my other little books.Give me some feedback for the chance to receive some complimentary copies (3 left).

another zine listed

Another little stranded fish book ends up in the store micro.  I hope you can pop in some time for a fish meal..