i finally managed to sort out a work space for myself and have started playing around with some ideas i have had for a while now. the small publisher's fair is coming around and i need to sort out some work to sell/show. i started playing with the drawings i had made for the one week loan show at camberwell library in june. i opened them all out so the creases line up. they form a really tactile, chunky pile which can't be folded as the creases suggest, which i find interesting. i like the sculptural quality that the piece gains. it really asks the viewer to play around with it, and this almost creates a number of temporary sculptures as the piece falls one way and then another. I'm also interested in the way, when opened up to view the drawings inside, that the drawings can only be partially viewed unless you lift out the pages above. I like the way this plays with the reading of, or rather the inability to fully read, the information. 

so...i received my copy of the Blue Notebook today, complete with my contribution which is pretty exciting. don't know if i can bring myself to read it again quite yet though. the paper should also be included in the next online issue of the Bonefolder, but not sure when that comes out. it will be the fall edition though.

at the moment i am waiting for october to get the next issue of The Blue Notebook. My paper is being published this issue, which is pretty exciting.

with the move from london up to stirling it's been pretty hectic over the past months. i had not realised that my last post was about the catalogue and i hadn't posted since the show!

the show went well - a very very busy evening. the rest of the week was slower of course but still a good turn out. we had our selling table which did quite well. the catalogues didn't do so well. as suspected, 8 pounds was too much/too weird a price to ask for. we ended up giving them away for free, which we hadn't discussed but which took away the argument about value. once they were available for free, they were quite popular.

after taking down the show, we moved it over to donlon books for the Edit show roland was organising.

These photos are by my friend Tom James.

not a great picture, but today we were able to put the catalogues together...completed. well, i still have more rubber bands to put around a few of them but they are together with all but one person making the deadline. the couple of people's work that was missing yesterday was put in today and we re-checked the rest and found a few errors that were then sorted out. through a majority vote, the price is set at 8 pounds - to be sold at the private view and the days following. i think it turned out to be a good design that met our needs as a quite disconnected group. and it wasn't too much extra work when we were all really busy and it cost very little to make. so in that respect, it has been a successful exercise. we gave one to the letterpress technician and have a few more to give out as well as receiving 3 each ourselves. the rest (which will be around 200) are for sale.

we finally got together to collate the catalogue yesterday. we had nearly everybody's work in, but as we didn't have it all, we couldn't put it all together. but we did manage to stamp our names on our pages, then put them in neat piles, and then go round and round the table picking up the pages and putting them together. we then had some discussions about little things that needed sorting. a much longer day than anticipated. 

today was our final deadline...all work handed in.

managed to get a quick snap of the other book arts exhibition room, though just from one angle. ying was still to add more to hers on the taller black tables.

stephanie's table, out of shot in the above photo.

this is the other piece of work i have in the exhibition. a stack of ink drawings on newsprint nailed in to the wall. it is hung quite high so that the viewer can also look at the underneath and see the rippling of the paper and lightly flick through if they want. this should compliment sarojini's piece in the other room - also out of newsprint and also stapled directly to the wall.

this is what the room i am exhibiting in looked like today. the support work is in with everything as assessment starts tomorrow, but we took out the bags and other stuff. this room is really quite monochrome apart from small areas of colour - welmoet's books, the insides of jane's books and tiny areas on mandy's work. the other room, which i will photograph tomorrow is much more colourful. i think the divide is interesting with some works in both tying the rooms together. as of today at half 5, there was still a lot that needed to be finished, so we'll see tomorrow if that has been done. assessment tomorrow so it will be out of our hands... until the exhibition

more work from the show...

welmoet's books (with one missing)

habitat of words

mandy's

jane's 

in the garden

other pieces in the show...

esther's flick book/animation

esther's piece again (the filing cabinet is purely there to house her support work and will be removed for the show)

emma's

cheryl's

carolina's memory maker

all set up and ready to go, though i must take photos of my last minute piece that was put in the other day, when another space needed filling. will do that tomorrow. am really happy with the slide projections, and the large piece also. it seems more together now that the room is better set up...

I didn't take any photos of the space on friday afternoon. but it was slowly taking shape. lots of hoovering, which caused it to overheat and then nearly catch on fire. had to sprint outside with it. Esther set her work up yesterday. I managed to sort another slide projector out that will hopefully work better than mine was. I have tested it out for a while and it works fine. But i will have a final try with mine on monday with a new carousel that should have arrived by then. I will also take all supporting work in and that will be that...Monday (tomorrow) is the deadline.

this is the space today. it still isn't looking anywhere near done and really hasn't progressed too much in the last few days. i made small changes by covering untidy edges and things. sadly it really doesn't photograph too well. I shall add more drawings to the area in front of the right hand door tomorrow. i will also try and sort out my slide projector situation. it keeps jamming and so this all needs sorting. i still have a few options for that. 

we cleared the space of the junk and have been busy installing etc still.i brought the hanging pieces out into the space some more. i am attempting to play with the density of the hanging with swarms and waves in mind. pieces will flow a little down into the space in front of the door. it then becomes thinner as it heads further in to the room and past the beam.

so now it's just a week to go. things still on track. really warm up in my space and a bit scary doing the top bits. getting there though. the space as a whole seems to be full of even more rubbish that we'll clear out on monday...hopefully. or maybe we can fit even more junk in?

the space is coming along. still lots of rubbish in the middle but the walls are finally looking better. my work is coming along also. i hope to get the gap in the middle done tomorrow so i can then work on moving out to the right. i also want to experiment with some spot lighting next week, as if the day is dull, the lighting in the room is so bad it does not help the piece at all. i may not need them, as certainly when it's sunny, it all looks fine. but best to have them there to play with, just in case...

more painting etc of the space today. lots of junk that has to be removed some time - next week i think. 

i installed some more drawings. it's coming along nicely i think. slowly but surely, but will hopefully get there in the end...