Paper Ponderings: Maps

Showing posts with label Maps. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 9, 2021

The commission completed

In the end, the work was all about the map. I used map references in the book; we incorporated map imagery into the wall work and Barry etched a map outline into aluminium for a wee sculpture.

The wall work...

I had written some words (poetic prose?) for the book; and wanted to incorporate some into the wall work as well. Here is my calligraphic rendering in ink. The property is large, and in western Queensland, and the land goes on forever...

Of course once I had done it, I took a photo from directly aboveand was horrified by the blank space top left. So I tore a piece of the map up and popped it on.

Still not quite enough, so a tiny fragment of the map was added and I could feel the trio of left sided elements making me calm again.

Sadly the clarity of the photos is not transferring well into blogger today - I promise the calligraphy is not blurry!

And so to the book.

It rests with a wrap around cover and band in a custom made perspex box.

The stencil motif was repeated

These words are shared between the two pieces.

Thinking about returning, leaving and memories.

There are five sets of words - some directly from the map; some more personal as I imagined the place from afar.

And of course, I love the edges.

Barry took the outline of the map and etched it into aluminium, and placed it on a cube of gidgee timber. The map describes stands of both mulga and gidgee/gidyah so we wanted to reference the timbers where we could. The bark lines on the wall piece are mulga.

I love how he carefully folded the metal to appear map-like and tethered it in three corners.

And here they are all wrapped and ready to be received.

We had a nice home made lemon and blueberry cake with a sparkler, and the gifts were opened and we spoke about what we had tried to do and it was all very lovely!!!

Sunday, February 7, 2021

The commission continued...

In typical fashion I was trying to push both the book and the wall work along a bit together, figuring that I often feel anxious if one thing is left behind; that they needed to be sympatico; and also making sure I didn't use up all my ideas and techniques in one and leave nothing for the other - Laugh!

Testing writing styles and tools on some rusted paper.

I bought a frame! And then I started to check if some of the elements would work with it.

The map mentioned a five-wire fence, so I thought about how to create that...stitching twigs but resolving the wire approach with Barry's help.

I was beginning to think this could work.

I received the hi res scan of the map as a file, so was able to print it onto fragments of papers to see whether they could be incorporated into the wall work or not.

And started playing with layouts

And then a twig broke when I started to stitch.

So a replacement was found and all was well.

Next up - the final pieces revealed.

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

A commission revealed...in parts.

Way back when it seems, we were approached by a lovely man looking to have us make something for his wonderful wife's 50th birthday. We love the pair of them and immediately said yes!!!

Whilst he wasn't sure exactly what he wanted, he did have some source material for us to reference, and then basically trusted us to come up with something. Which was a rather nice brief.

The original materials were the metal stencils used to stamp the name of the property onto their bales of wool; along with an original map of the property with hand written notes and the like.

The metal was so gorgeous...

And the marks looked like a landscape.

The stencils were not to be used in the artwork we created - but rather were to inspire us, and they did!

You may recall I thought I had discovered my palette for this work back here... and looking at the image above you can see why above you can see why I felt happy with these papers!

And the map - such a beautiful thing in its own right.

And so it began.

I worked on an artists' book and a wall piece; and Barry prepared a small sculpture. We arranged to have the map removed from its frame, carefully scanned at hi res and then re-framed (thank you Jame Frames and Mapuccino in Maleny).

More later. You know I love a process post!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Another journey-book

I have had these pages lying about in the studio for over a year now. They were an experiment, a test and a bit of a play for me who rarely picks up a brush to paint anything (altho I am enjoying painting the shed).

About two months ago, I found them and decided to chop them in half. And then left them there for a while again. So I picked them up recently, thought about how they could work as a book, thought about some words I could write, and wrote some pages to make them a book.

I wrote "We exist in relation to others, especially the important people in our lives, and their losses leave us untethered and no longer sure where our point on the map is now".

I wrote modern versals with black ink, and then used a fine black waxed linen thread to do a coptic binding.

©Fiona Dempster, Untethered 2011

Sunday, February 13, 2011

The story of the books

Barry and I had visited Ypres, in Belgium (Flanders Fields) in 2008 and I had bought some maps. It was kind of a pilgrimage for me - to visit the Menin Gate where my great-grandfather's name is listed as one among almost 55 000 Allied troops who died there and for whom there is no known grave. I had written the story of his enrolment, embarkation and battles in a short history for the family a few years ago. It was a touching and moving story which resonated down the generations. He never met his only daughter (my grandmother) as she was born 8 months after he embarked and I often reflect on the fact that we are all here (my family) because of the fleeting moments between when he enlisted and married (in May) and when he embarked (in August) in 1915.

The map I used is of Messines Ridge and surrounds, where he was killed in June 1917. The colours became subdued. The marks about understanding my place with regard to him and all he did; and the journey the one from which he did not return.

The second book used the map to fill holes and gaps in another book (... the holes and gaps he left behind); and the blood lines drift through it as do the tufts of red poppies from Flanders Fields.

Whilst they are very personal to me; I hope they also work as art pieces that tell stories about journeys, places, marks and traces.

Here are some close-ups for Velma!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

This book is ready now...

I have finished my book which took me on such a wonderful wandering journey and taught me so much about working with a piece, being guided by it, being open to new ways of presenting it; and which gave me confidence in my intuition as an artist.

Each of the pages was printed with a map image, then folded in half and the cutouts or additions added. Unlike most books or pages that are folded in half; the fold is the fore edge here. This is because I thought that each page would have a cutout or two and I didn't want people to see the back of them. So I popped the back of the cutout inside the page so to speak.

That meant that in order to bind it, I had to treat each folded page as a single page and do a single sheet binding - altho each single sheet was in fact made of two. Not a great description but hopefully understandable. The folded fore edge meant that the book 'bowed' a bit - was narrower at the spine than at the fore edge, so I put a strip of extra paper at the stitching edge/spine to bulk that area up.

Towards completion, Barry also suggested I 'seal' the top and bottom of the pages. I had originally thought I would leave them 'open' so that people could peak inside, but I am really glad I did seal them - they look more professional and finished.

The covers are more of Barry's handmade paper and the inner cover is made from a spare map sheet. Perfect. Here it is happy and proud.