Sunday, March 16, 2014

Booked! in more detail

I mentioned last weekend that we were in Cairns for the celebrations around Booked! and International Women's Day.  We had a fine time up north and I was thrilled to be able to see the exhibition and to share in celebrating women in the arts.

Sometimes you see an exhibition and you realise it is 'so you'. It was that way for me with this one; I gazed upon it in awe and with such delight - everything was so beautiful, so thoughtful, so intimate and so wonderfully wrought.

As many, if not most of you, won't get the chance to get to Cairns to see them, I thought I'd share a few of them in more detail.

My favourite piece and the one I kept returning to was by Rose Rigley. Titled "A preserving nature: Family History" it explored how families hold memories in tangible objects and how these are valued and experienced across generations. Lovely threads and wax and shards of ceramics were held in this book.


Another intriguing piece was by Barbara Dover - Book of truth. Using a reconstructed book and horse hair it speaks about animals in warfare and how they have been used and abused.



I was also taken by the warmth and inviting nature of this book by Susan Porteous. It references how Gandhis said spinning could save India - by spinning the fibres for making their own cotton, the country could be liberated economically. This book uses an old spindle and a book about Gandhi where the pages have been spun into this continuous thread…a contemplative and meditative practice.


I loved the simplicity and elegance of Louisa Boyd's 'Pleat', part of a series where she explores paper and taking it from a 2-D surface to a 3-D form; letting the humble page of paper shine.


Vide Freiberg's "What to expect when you are expecting" considers how the truth around childbirth is shared between women, not always fully told, and how this information can be kept from women who haven't experienced childbirth.


In "Ci-Cz"Ania Gilmore uses torn English and Polish book pages, rearranged and structured to form the word Citizenship with the I connecting the two words. From the World Book Encyclopaedia, she discovered that a word that has been such a long part of her life journey, can be described with such a short description.


Mandy Gunn's "Between the lines" uses the Oxford dictionary and braille paper, torn and cut and reassembled onto cardboard in a 3-D design. It suggest how we all see and use information differently and that it is often important tot read between the lines, not simply accept something at face value.



And then just because I loved it so…more of Rose's book in detail.





You can see what a beautiful and serene show it was, how the pieces worked together so harmoniously and each held a story beyond their visual story.  I remain thrilled and honoured to have joined these women in this exhibition.

20 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing these photos Fiona! It looks to be a wonderful exhibit. There's a simplicity about Susan Porteous' piece that I find very appealing and calming. Could be that I just ordered a thingie to use to spin paper into thread. Yes. I'm such an expert that the name of the thingie escapes just now. Maybe I should go back to bed and begin again. It's only 6 am here. Enjoy!

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    1. I like the sound of your thingie J! You can be forgiven easily - we try really hard not to use the word thing to describe everything - but we fall back on it soften. It was a lovely pice and I hope you get topspin some beautiful paper with your thingie.

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  2. What a wondrous exhibition. Thanks for showing us the books here; as I'm the other side of the world, I would never have seen them. They are very beautiful; and very inspiring.

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    1. Very happy to share Jan. Sometimes an exhibition needs to be shared and this one felt that way for sure. Some lovely pieces and intriguing details.

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  3. lovely works --- isn't it interesting to see how 'book arts' have developed in the last few years..... really inspiring stuff

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    1. Very true Ronnie - they are all bookish and of book arts, yet all so different - I love that!

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  4. It's so nice to be able to 'examine' these pieces in a bit more detail. They truly make for a very harmonious group, yet each one is so unique & special...collectively they so well illustrate the diversity & potential of the book arts. Thank you for bringing them 'closer' to the many of us who can't make it to the exhibition!

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    1. Thanks Lisa - I'm glad you could still get a feel of the show and the pieces over the inter web. You are right about the harmony between them; differences were celebrated, yet the shared bookness was such a unifying force; and perhaps the palette too. I am still sighing in delight.

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  5. I really enjoyed seeing these pieces, thanks Fiona. I love the thought of pottery shards between the pages of Rose Rigley's book..... and oh the texture of Mandy Gunn's "Between the Lines"!

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    1. Thanks Robyn - those ceramic shards were such a precious and fragile addition to the book; such a wonder to discover. And Mandy's piece was very visually exciting and tactile - altho I didn't actually touch it...

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  6. Exquisite details. Thanks for sharing Fiona - no wonder you were delighted to be in this exhibition. Love all those threads and torn pages.

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    1. Thanks Susan - I know, torn pages and threads, I was done for! It was so beautiful and exciting, I wish it could travel further...

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  7. What a joy to see this in more detail and have them described with such delight. You are in good company with these other artists and I love your favourite piece too.

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    1. Thanks Lesley - it was such a joy and a real voyage of discovery to spend time with them...

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  8. Thanks so much for sharing this Fiona! It is great to see the work up close.

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    1. So glad you could get to see the work up close Louisa from all that way away! It was a stunning and beautiful show...

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  9. i just found this…congratulations fiona and a great show to be part of.

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    1. Thanks Velma - it was a fabulous show, and I am still enjoying looking at these images...

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I appreciate your thoughts and comments; thanks for taking the time.