hound art gesture...

hmmmmmm 

so hounds DO take after their humans....

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art and lies (lies and misdemeanours)...

Well folks it's past time for me to show you all
what I created for my second BAO project

based on an excerpt from Jeanette Winterson's 'Art and Lies' 

I made a small edition (just 12) of vertical hanging concertina booklets

 Rhonda Ayliffe

'Lies and Misdemeanours'

2011

archival inkjet print on TH Saunders

handcrafted distress dyed book cloth by the artist

satin ribbon 

The piece features a print from my ongoing 'codex incendium' series of ephemeral book/fire installations and an excerpt from 'The Enemies of Books' by William Blades 

Each 'Lies and Misdemeanours' booklet also contains a folded printed excerpt from my draft exegesis chapter (on biblioclasm). I thought this excerpt was especially pertinent to the Art and Lies project, as it contains my research and writing about the loss of the great library of Alexandria

There's also a small folded card-as-colophon (featuring a tiny print of an ephemeral work completed at the Cape Byron lighthouse in August this year...)

 (here's a few of the finished books... all folded up) 

I've blogged a couple of times about how this piece gave me quite a bit of grief, as I struggled with just the right approach to the Winterson text... In the end I decided to create a piece that was my response to the text (indeed there's no sign of the jumping off text in the final piece).  I chose a very simple structure as the text was incredibly dense... Misgivings and highly self-critical debate aside - I'm content with the final piece...

I'm especially thrilled with how the entire BAO 'Art and Lies' edition pulls together as a collection of books. When these books were exhibited together at Impact 7 recently, it was amazing to discover the unity of the collection. Despite that all the pieces were worked on separately and simultaneously on three different continents, by wildly different artists (all without any 'checking in' with each other about just how we were approaching the work) - strangely (fortunately) the work has a complementary aesthetic - and the edition looked fabulous sitting together. From a dispassioned, curatorial viewpoint, it was a nice moment!


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book models....

I've been up to my nose in research and writing today.... trying to make a start on that difficult first chapter of my exegesis..... I'm not someone who finds writing easy (AT ALL!) it takes me a long, looooooooong time to get anywhere (that's why I need to make a start now!) I don't know if I'm strange, but I always tend to start writing things in the middle then work outwards (and the beginning and ending of my stuff usually comes at the same time - at the very end of my time writing!)

Well, I'm commencing the the writing of my exegesis whack smack in the middle - and I'm presently trying to write a chapter on biblioclasm (and bibliophilia and bibliomania - books books and more books!). After a day spent reading/writing all about the destruction of books and libraries I needed to do something a bit more constructive and loving with books ....

So I finished off the day making a couple of book models from some of the handmade paper created the other day....

this one has a hardcover - with alphabet stamped paste-paper covers (I haven't finished 'decorating' the covers yet....), long stitched over paper-covered tapes with sections created from my handmade paper


Sharp-eyed BAO peeps will notice some familiar hand-marbled and paste papers (yes the model above is covered in leftover paste paper and the one below is wearing hand-marbled paper off-cuts from my 'learning absences' book edition...)

this one is soft cover, long-stitched over paper strips... and is my favourite. It's quite a pleasing structure to hold in the hand - the size is nice and the paper feels soft and inviting....

ahh well - it was nice to be making books after all the talk of destroying them!



** p.s. I've photographed the books on the emerging granite rock retaining wall that my dearest, wonderful-est man is creating here at sams creek..... here's an 'in progress' shot.....

Isn't my FP a clever creature? I'm looking forward to watching the wall grow - I'm sure it will be finished long before my biblio-chapter.....





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