'I think therefore.... I bind'

Back in June I began a project to bind another colourful loooooong book - this time created from an entire (15 volume) set of childcraft annuals....

and yesterday I finished all 2.7m (or 8ft 10 inches) of it....

(this is not the best piccie.... but at least it gives you a bit of an idea of its length...)

This is the third, and now longest, of these 'serpent books' that I've completed since last winter (here's where you can read more about the construction of the first and second 'serpent book') - this one is also the most colourful in the bunch....

and like the others, it can be arranged in a variety of ways... as a loooooooong book, or a spiral, circle, figure-of-eight, free-form or something in between....

(I like to drape them over my shoulders, like a boa constrictor,
to move them from one place to another.....

they are very fluid creatures and rather heavy!)

and of course like the others, this one took a loooooong time to complete - but I found the process of binding all of these both relaxing and meditative.... and while I was binding, something else was going on.....


Over the past few months I've been neck-deep in heavy-duty reading and writing as part of my Higher Degree Research (MFA/PhD) project.... (this past week I submitted the draft plan of my exegesis..... eeeek). I'm one of those people who needs a fair amount of time to digest written material - especially the heavy-duty philosophical stuff I've been TRYING to wade through lately (Pragmatism, Neo-Pragmatism, Pragmatic Zen and their ramifications for arts practice... for those who like to know this sort of stuff.....)

OH BOY!

I find I often need to take a break - to take a walk or work in the garden to help work out the meaning of texts (or more importantly, the ramifications of various texts to my research project and art-making). I've also discovered, that binding these long books (an activity most would describe as kraaaazy, obsessive making) does the same thing ---- somehow all the 'metaphysical' this and 'existential' that from the heavy-duty texts start to work their way into my understanding (just please don't ask me to explain any of it!).

So from here on, when I have something to work out I'm going to go for a walk, or work in the garden, or BIND SOMETHING.....


(and the way my reading/writing/research is going, I'll either end up hellishly fit, with a weed-free garden, or the lady with the largest collection of strange looooooong books this side of sams creek!)


OH BOY!