Monday, June 30, 2008

A couple more, unrelated, things...

Wrapped Trees by Jean-Claude and Cristo (Old, I know, but so pretty. Although I am concerned at the moment about the environmental impact of Cristo and Jean-Claude's works and I can't seem to find out very much about it.)



Ceramic Crinkle Cups by Rob Brandt

Nicholas Jones - Book Sculptor






I stumbled upon the work of Nicholas Jones this morning. The pictures on his website a well worth a look. I particularly like how the images of his studio space and work-in-progress seem to be as much as part of the work as the final pieces themselves. Below is from the 'About' section of his website.

Nicholas Jones is a Melbourne based sculptor who uses books and printed paper to make works which question the manner in which books are 'read'.
Books are capsules; vessels designed to hold information, borne of investigation or of personal expression. These objects are often venerated, held aloft as are amulets, as the source of reasoned knowledge, the fecund field awaiting the harvest. Sequestered away in dusty libraries, spines anticipating the eye of the beholder, these books tactility remains at arms length.
The physical act of folding, tearing and sewing book leaves, may be considered iconoclastic (extinguishing the fire of reason, perhaps). Although sometimes iconised for their content or historical importance, more often than not, books are discarded as cultural detritus. These transformed books aim to highlight the poetic nature of the book as form. As historical phenomena, books have reflected the evolution of mankind, and although beseiged by new technologies, the book remains steadfastly both the solver of the riddle and the creator of the labyrinth.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Paper Shoes

Today I have found a selection of paper shoes for your Friday afternoon viewing pleasure. I'm still exhasted so that's all I'll say for now. Back tomorrow!

Ambiorix collaborates with Tim Van Steenbergen

Violise Lunn

K. Hayashi (I will blog more about this artist another day)

Marion Michell


Jennifer Collier


Japanese Craft Book - Instructions so you can make your own wrapping paper shoes.

Good morning!

Or not so good. As you might already know, I had intended to get up extra early this morning to see the Paper Tiger exhibition by susan Stockwell. I might have been kidding myself that I could actually manage to get out of bed at 5:30am because I could not do it! There was a fox screaming blue murder outside my window all night and now I am exhausted. Anyway, I will definitely go to see it at some point, when I will show you my photos.

I also wanted to show you this film. I watched it a couple of months ago and it has completely changed the way I think about buying stuff and throwing stuff away. I really have thought about it ever since. It's 20mins long but really worth it.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Paper Tiger - Susan Stockwell at One Canada Square, London

Light Tunnel
Hole cut through 20 suspended sheets of tissue paper.

Toilet Roll Painting
Work made from all available colours of toilet rolls.

Cascade
Made in situ from paper.

I'm working for a lovely company in Docklands at the moment, I love it here, everything is so grand and sparkly and I get to walk along the river in the morning. During my walk to the tube station yesterday I passed One Canada Square (I was a bit lost) where I was excited to spot, through the splendid windows, a stunning display of paper dresses as part of an exhibition called Paper Tiger by Susan Stockwell. Now, I can't find any pictures online but I'm going to get up super early tomorrow and visit the exhibition (it's open to visitors on Monday to Friday from 6am to 12am and Saturday and Sunday from 7am to 11.30pm) hopefully I will be able to snap a few sneaky pictures without being escorted out by security. For the time being, these are a few images of her work.

Also at Canary Wharf at the moment is the London Screen and The London Festival of Architecture.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Assault of the Eyes

I really need to get around to changing the banner ugliness that assaults my eyes every time I look at my blog. I will do it this weekend. Probably. I hope.

Reading around...

1+1=3 - Mark Prill

Once Upon a Time - Margaret Gosley

No Milk - Abigail Thomas

Books in Transit - Guy Begbie

... is a project initiated by UWE Bristol to celebrate The National Year of Reading 2008 and World Book Day. UWE asked artists to contribute an artwork/page/movie clip/audio clip about reading.You can take a look at the online gallery here. Above are a few of my favourites, please click on the Guy Begbie one in order to see it larger, it's an amazing photograph.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Paper artists round three...

I am constantly on the look out for new paper artists, and those who I have never heard of before. Here are my most recent finds:

Janna Syvanoja

Miriam Londono

Kristen Hassenfeld


Jade Pegler


Atelier Bom Design

Monday, June 23, 2008

Well, it has been quite a while...

I am now a married woman! Things have been a bit busy and I've been away for a few days. We just had a little ceremony and a lovely weekend away in the New Forest. Next year we're having a big party with tea and cakes and all things pretty.

Anyway, I am back and I will try to post every day from now on.

Firstly, I have been seeing pleated bib front blouses like this everywhere and admiring the lovely paper-like folds. I think these two are really pretty.

Reiss

Topshop


Next is Veryround by Louise Campbell;

This is simply a very round chair. Signed limited edition pieces. Consists of 160 circles, and focuses as much on shadowplay as on construction. The chair rocks sideways. It was designed by cutting small paper models by hand, and the intention was for the result to look as fragile as the original models. It does, but it is as strong as can be.



And finally, today I found this amazing 100% recycled paper wallpaper by Mio Culture available at Vivavi, 'an eco-friendly furniture and home design centre.'


That's all for now, back tomorrow!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

A few things to tell you about...


Book Things and Word Works - Eagle Gallery, London (23 May – 14 June 2008)
Book Things and Word Works is an exhibition that explores how artists use the form of the book as sculptural object, container and as the source material for text works.
The exhibition includes unique works on paper and cut -out books by Clare Bryan and Julie Cockburn, a sequence of punctuation mark poems by Victoria Bean (made as lithographic lenticular lenses) and a series of mixed media works by Carolyn Thompson, in which she cuts out and weaves together the lines of Shakespeare’s sonnets to form re-written texts.


Dust - Lau Thiam Kok, Plymouth Arts Centre (from 10th June across the city)
DUST is a book of writings by Lau Thiam Kok about the idea of place. 1000 copies of the book are left in random places across the city. They can be taken from place to place or left on a park bench, at a coffee shop or on the bookshelf. Join the online Flickr group to watch and share these found books: www.flickr.com/groups/dustproject

The Liquid Page Symopsium - Tate Britain, London (20th June)

Just what we can make of the book and what it can make of us is the theme of this symposium. Commentators have foreseen radical change in both the form of this enduring cultural object and the way we interact with it. New technology always questions the relevance and significance of traditional forms. The Liquid Page invites academics and artists to explore the ways in which both the book and the act of reading is being reshaped, expanded and coaxed into new directions and hybrid forms.

The Bonefolder Bind-O-Rama 2008

The Bonefolder is an online journal for bookbinders and book artists. Every year they have a challenge and exhibition of bookbinding structures called Bind-O-Rama. This year's event will feature works exhibiting any of the structures described in the past eight issues of Bonefolder (the issues also explain in detail how to do each binding). The deadline for entry is September 1st.

You can also browse through some of the previous entries. Below are some of my favourites.

Marcia Ciro, Watertown, MA, USA

Sheila Cunningham, Dallas, TX, USA

Betsy Kruger, Champaign, IL, USA

Pamela Barrios, Orem, Utah, USA

Friday, June 6, 2008

Train of Thought

Hm... So many things to say, I don't really know where to start.

I was just reading through the striking blog 2 or 3 Things I Know and I was reminded of the work of Jessica Stockholder. I looked her up to marvel at her fabulous installations when I found Led Almost by my Tie, 2007 a collaboration between Stockholder and poet Jeremy Sigler. The book content is a Sigler poem which has been deconstructed and reconstructed by Stockholder and is made using layers of translucent and transparent mylar, plastic and paper pages, letterpress, lithography, digital printing and hand colouring.


Okay, so then I was looking through the Booklyn website when I found this amazing list of limited edition artists publications. Actually, the whole site is packed full of great info and images. I particularly like House of Ghosts by Marshall Webber, Christopher Wilde and Mark Wagner because I love architectural drawings, blueprints, lovely paper and transparent, ephemeral things.

Then I wanted to read some poems by Jeremy Sigler and I came across this interesting list of Artist/Poet collaborations, most of which I haven't seen before. You can flick through the pages to see the images and read the texts.

Now I Know, Jeremy Sigler

there is wind
so still
breeze so flat
turbulence
so dead
now I know
there is a point
between here and
near the still, flat
dead of you
beside the night sea
off the shore of me

Tate Modern Bookshop


Hello and happy Friday!
The other day I popped into the Tate Modern to take a look around the bookshop. I purchased the Tate Artists Timeline (as recommended by my friend and Etsy shop co-owner, Kasia) which is now in print as well as painted on the wall on concourse levels three and five at the museum. I now have it stuck up on my wall. It's a really handy way of getting familiar with all the major movements and artists of the twentieth century. You can also buy it here.

(image from Arthur's Design's Photostream)




I also found a little gem of a book Seven Hundred Penguins which is a collection of Penguin covers. Not only are the covers gorgeous and really bring back some memories, it's also a beautiful, tactile little object.