Unwrapping Books

In 2010,  I was part of the show Unwrapping Books : rearranging formulae, curated by Metron.
Science and maths books, ranging from primary to academic texts, and journals were selected and donated by Oxford University Press.
A number was allocated to each book, and these were wrapped and distributed to twenty- seven artists who had been invited to respond in any way they chose.
The exhibition was held in the 03 Gallery in March 2010, and reconfigured in the public space in OUP in October .

This year, Unwrapping Books will be based at The Botanic Gardens, Oxford. This will coincide with  Oxford's World Book Capital bid. The final works by 30 artists (including visual artists, dancers and musicians) will come together at The Botanic Gardens in April 2014.

For more info see:
 http://unwrappingbooks.info/#/oxford-botanic-gardens/4560059824

Articles from The Garden and The Gardening Chronicles are the inspiration for the artists to respond to. Each artist and article was allocated a number, these numbers were drawn from a hat to connect the artist with their piece if text.

The Articles

The articles which have been selected for me are:

Entomology - The Green-rose chafer or cetonia aurata
The Gardener's Chronicle - 1841
Pg. 452

and

Watering in dry weather
The Garden - 1881
Pg. 632

I'm looking forward to researching both of these subjects. Hopefully it will give me the opportunity to develop some techniques.

finished amulets

  Continuing from The Small Blessings http://pittrivers-amulets.blogspot.co.uk/project at The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, I went on to finish off some of the amulets which I started during the project. I have also made a few new ones.
To give the finished amulets a feeling of belonging to the permanent collections, they were all hand labeled and numbered.

plaster, gold and silver leaf

plaster, metal matchbox holder

aluminium, crystal bead, leather

embroidered wool purse, leather, donkey hair, found objects

aluminium, stone, leather

beeswax, plaster, thread, paper

copper, found objects, knitted purse

plaster, gold and silver leaf

Beeswax, plaster and pins

The labels were edged with aluminium and copper, to give a similar feel to the labels in the museum. All the specimens from the project have gone through conservation to check for any infestation and put through the deep freeze. This will protect objects in the museum from potential contamination.

Working on this unique project has inspired my work a great deal. It has led me to try out new techniques, such as mould making and casting and also to consider ways of presenting my work.
Hopefully I will continue to develop some of these ideas in my future work.

Small things arranged neatly

I recently came across an artist in America (Lisa Congon), who Created a blog based on photographing a collection a day. http://collectionaday2010.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2010-12-03T07:03:00-08:00&max-results=30
It was interesting listening to what her thought son collecting were on what the appeal of neatly arranging things was all about. Her thoughts on why things arranged and organised had visual appeal was due to the fact that our every day lives can often be quite chaotic. Looking at something which has been organised can give calming qualities, even if these are not our own things.

I have been meaning to record and photograph my many collections for a long time, and seeing Congon's work plus other artists who do similar things ( Austin Radcliffe - http://thingsorganizedneatly.tumblr.com/ ) has inspired me to think about this again.

I have many things which I have collected over the years (mainly from car boot sales), which I am going to start to document. They will appear on this blog as often as I can find the time to do this.

A few things which I have multiples of include:

• butterflies
• cigarette cards
• vintage toys and games
• vintage sewing ephemera
• stamps
• postcards
• old letters
• vintage scrapbooks
• Vintage maps
• old photographs
• fishing tackle
• dolls
• vintage suitcases
• old buttons
• keys
• old books
• brass animal ornaments
• tea
• vintage press studs

Another artist/comedian who is quite interesting is Ursus Wehrli. His concept is about 'tidying up art' You can watch one of his performances here

Some of my lace making bobbins, awaiting organising

The last day at The Museum

Today was the last of the 6 sessions of the Small Blessings http://pittrivers-amulets.blogspot.co.uk/ project, which I have been working on with a community group from Mind (Mental Health charity). It has been a wonderful project to work on, not only because it has been based at The Pitt Rivers Museum http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/ but also it has created a direct link to my own work.

We have explored different materials and techniques during the project, including mould making, clay and metal. It has been interesting discovering and learning all about the amulets collections and creating our own amulets, charms and votives.
One of the important aspects was the presentation of the finished pieces. At the start of the project we visited the conservation rooms at the museum and saw how the collections are cataloged, labelled and presented at the museum. We tried to keep our work along the same lines as to fit in with the rest of the displays.

I'm looking forward to eventually seeing the work displayed in one of the cases at the museum.

Hand writing labels

Finding inspiration for the descriptions

Labeling the casts

Numbering the objects

The group finishing off their artwork

The finished artwork

The artwork with the hand written labels

This one will be displayed in a box with a cushioned lining

The metal crimping on the labels really made a difference to the finished objects

Hand Written

I am currently working on a few signage designs for another commision for The Old Fire Station, Oxford  (see  http://www.oldfirestation.info/ ). The designs are for two windows, and we will be using either laser cut vinyl or printed vinyl.

The signage has to advertise the shop, the gallery and the cafe. The message which needs to get across to the audience (the passing public), is unique, hand made, and original.
I will be using hand written text to give that hand made feel and also to make the signage more personal.
I have been working on ideas using different media and colour, just playing with the materials to see what I can come up with. I wanted to introduce pattern and texture into the text to bring in the design element from the shop and the gallery.

Experimenting with different media

Graphite, rubbed back

Ideas and inspiration

I like the orange, grey, white and black colour scheme...maybe some blue?

As well as using the hand written type, I will also be using drawn images. I want the images to work with the type and become part of the whole image. The overall look will be bold, and contrasting to create a striking image which people will notice. Hopefully the hand written type will intrigue enough for people to want to read it and come into the building. I have been photographing some of the objects found in the shop as a starting point for drawing and sketching out ideas. I will be taking some of these objects and maybe creating silhouettes or a paper cut effect to include detail and pattern. I will also be looking at some of the pattern and deign on the objects, and maybe just use them on their own.

I have been looking at the bold images of lino cut prints as inspiration.

This reminded me of the red Chinese paper cuts

...and the paper cut illustrations of Rob Ryan

and then a screen print which I did a few years ago...

So, I will be experimenting with the objects and pattern next. Watch this space.

Voodoo dolls

Stories behind the objects

Snails in linen bags collected from the walls of St Leonard's chapel in Brittany. Worn around the neck as a cure for fever, they were buried at the foot of the walls of the chapel as soon as the fever had passed. It was believed that if the wearer failed to perform this ceremony, their fever would return.

Policeman's amulet, France. Acquired in Paris in 1889, this amulet is made from a coin, a piece of hangman's rope and skin from a sadistic murderer named Campi. Campi reportedly murdered one Monsieur Ducros de Sixt in the Rue du Regard on 10th August 1883 and was sentenced to death. In the 189th century many people believed that the rope from which a criminal had been hanged had curative powers and could bring good luck. On execution days people would congregate around the gallows in order to be cured by a 'death stroke' from the dead man's hand.

 

Horned hands, Italy. Horned hands we worn as protection against the harmful glance of the Evil Eye. Sparkling and brightly coloured, their striking appearance was thought to divert attention away from the wearer so that she or he could escape unharmed. Belief in the Evil Eye - the power of certain animal and people to inflict malady on anything they look at - continues to be held in many parts of the world.

 

Skulls, Italy. These 'death's head' amulets from Naples were used to decorate rosaries and to remind people of the transience of life. The white ones are made of shell, while the brown coloured ones are made of lava from Mount Vesuvius.

Carved and decorated sheep bone, to protect against scorpions

Crocodile eggs used to carry poison

Tiger's tooth on which an oath has been taken

Sealed bottle, said to contain a witch

Cast brass hand amulet against the Evil Eye. Fixed to the saddle of a cab-horses's harness