a found fire, a book and a brief moment captured...

...

getting down to work....

I've had a strangely productive time of things lately - I say strangely because I've been almost overwhelmed by an avalanche of jobs and life stuff that in theory should mean that I'd have no time or space or energy for anything else...... so I have no idea how I've managed to get any artyworks completed.....

(I took advantage of some recent very wet weather
to make book-water-works in an ephemeral waterway....
this volume of funky-wagnalls is opened to the entry on the water cycle....
I suppose you could say I'm allowing the water to add it wisdom to the words....)

I spent all day Saturday helping set up for the living artist art auction in Bermagui (I've uploaded a couple of pics sent to me from the night on the fsclap facebook page and you can see some pics of the works on offer on the living artist blog). I've really enjoyed working with and getting to know local arty creatures - like Mister (Matt) Jones - a finalist in the previous living artist award.... and Poppy Benton - the inaugural award recipient and current president of fsclap.... (and all-round witty and wonderful human bean - Poppy also has a lovely hole-in-the-wall, gem of a gallery in Tathra)

But come Sunday it was time to get back to things in and out of the studio (its only 2 weeks until I have to make my annual pilgrimage to monash uni for the winter symposium..... gulp.... whilst it's my 4th journey, it's my first as a HDR student...)
I know that some of my booky-bloggy friends (and ALL of my family and other friends) have questioned my sanity in tackling HDR studies at this time and the arty-making that is emerging..... what can I say - I'm on a journey of sorts where the destination isn't totally in view (actually it's one where even the mode of transport is questionable!) but somehow I am compelled to continue making my booky-arty objects and interventions.......

(in a remnant puddle of the disappearing waterway

I opened an encyclopaedia year book to an entry on photosynthesis....

and then set the pages on fire.....

as you do....)

* and aside from these small book-works - some regular visitors to my little space here may have noticed the dramatic change to my blog header...... yes it's a sneak view of some larger works in progress.... but more about that another time....

more works from 'codex infinitum' project...

 'ego sum via, verum quod vita'

(I am the way the truth and the life)

ephemeral sculpture/ photo triptych

2009

Over the past week I've been posting some pics from last years work - my ongoing project 'codex infinitum' (the infinite book) on both my facebook profile and 'fan page ' (I'm still not comfortable with that damn name/ classification.... oh well) ... I've had a few of these on my flickr site or NAVA profile previously but I've mostly not posted or talked much about what I've been making/doing here on the blog....

It's something I've been both meaning to, and reluctant to do.... (I'd love to hear everyone's opinion on the sharing of work via blogs and the internet... I'm still very unsure about it) anyway... here are a few more pics - these are some more of my 'codex incendium' pieces - the burning books - and I've already shared 'fahrenheit 451' (one of the artists proofs is currently on tour with the meroogal award).... along with 'scientia inflammatus' (which was reproduced in the current issue of 'artlink')... here are some other burning towers....

 

'lumenae vitae'

(light of life)

 ephemeral sculpture/ photography

 

 'secundum libri'

(after the book)

ephemeral sculpture/ photography

This (and the top triptych) emerged from my second burning book towers - the tower was approx 1.8m tall and consisted of unwanted funk and wagnall encyclopaedias.

Just visible in the background of the above 2 shots is the outline of Gulaga (the mother) mountain - it is a hugely significant peak in Australian colonial history - most people are not aware that Gulaga (renamed 'Mt Dromedary' by Cook... reclaimed as 'Gulaga' in the 1980/90s) is the first place in Australia that is mentioned (in its colonial name) in both Cook's and Banks' journals... a week or so before the Endeavour came ashore at Botany Bay (there's another of those renamed sites....). This hidden local history is something that has influenced much of my work in recent years...

 

'sic transit gloria mundi'

(thus passes the glory of the world)

ephemeral sculpture/ photo triptych

This last triptych is from the third and final burning book tower of last winter - which was set up beside one of the fast shrinking dams here at Sams Creek - (as much for safety's sake as an artistic decision!)

Most of these works have been reproduced at a fairly solid size (about 50cm x 80cm approx for each.... and that's the individual pic size for each of the 3 works in the above triptych) and are being released in limited editions (no more than 5 of each individual work)

PS ... Given that 2 days ago we had temps over 44C (111F) I'm not sure that this is the best time of year to post pics of anything burning.... but heck its taken me so long to get around to posting these...if I didn't do it now goodness only knows when I'd do it....

meroogal women's art award

I've been so distracted by bushfires and dying modems and the like that I've completely forgotten to tell all and sundry about the news from the meroogal womens art award... duh!

the big (ok - medium sized) news is that the piece I sent in to the meroogal award not only was selected for the exhibition - but actually received a commendation (it seems to be the word that I'm mostly attached to lately... hmmmm.......)

I posted a pic of the artwork in its unmodified manifestation in an earlier post - just as a reminder this is kinda what I sent in....




well - it was a cropped and very enlarged version of this at any rate!

the final printed piece was almost life size - at about 4ft tall and 2ft wide (and mostly the books where in the frame) - block mounted (my framers were in full heart attack mode - 'aggghhhhh you want to block mount this - are you an idiot!?!!') hey what can I say - most art awards demand no glass and 'd' ring fittings and all that..... (up to and almost including the rights to your first born child...)

The theme for this year's award was 'Books and the world of ideas' - and you guys all know I have PLENTY of IDEAS! Originally I was making something totally different for the award (go check out my flickr site...) but at the last moment changed my mind and settled on one if my burning books images instead

This is the brief artist statement I included with the work....

'Fahrenheit 451' refers to the dystopian novel of the same name written by Ray Bradbury in the 1950s. In the novel, books are outlawed and burned 'for the good of humanity' - Fahrneheit 451 is the temperature at which books auto-ignite. Burning books has historically been the means of suppressing ideas and alternate viewpoints… even though the books used in my work were discarded encyclopaedias – destined for landfill, the action of destroying them by fire remains an uncomfortable practice.

With 'Fahrenheit 451' I'm presenting the antithesis of what the Meroogal library represents: the preservation of Books and the World of Ideas...



next weekend (Saturday 19 Sept), all things being equal, I'm hoping to get up to the Shoalhaven City Arts Centre and give a slightly longer chat about the making of the piece et al. whilst the exhibition is still in Nowra... I'll give a confirmation on my fb page before the date - fingers crossed I'll see some friendly familiar faces there!

and right now I'm working on creating a short edition of the work (again I'll let you know both here and at my fb page how those plans are progressing) - so much work - so little time!

fire, fire burning bright...

I've been a bit distracted over the past week – my modem died on monday night - so I'm still offline at my place (I'm working on a borrowed computer... thanks oh brother of mine!)

Then later in the week – this was what was going on just over the hill from our place....

whoa mumma!

I took this pic on Thurs night, as the flames descended from the mountain....

Gulaga is an ancient (and of course long extinct) volcano... the vision of flames spewing down the mountain was just freaky, it gave a glimpse of the old girl's past life.

On Friday the fire ringed the base of the mountain – moving towards the communities in Dignams Creek (one creek and one hill over from us here at Sams Creek) and all the farms between there and the small dual townships of Tilba Tilba and Central Tilba to the north. Yesterday (Saturday) the winds really picked up and pressed the fires in my direction and toward my dearest friends living in the creek – all of Dignams Creek was advised to evacuate – then later in the afternoon the winds shifted as a storm moved in and the threat eased for the evening. Today (Sunday) the winds are still coming from the SW – so today the pressure will hopefully ease in the creek and unfortunately intensify in the northern end.

It's somewhat bizarre that I'm witnessing and experiencing the threat of fire up close and personal given the current nature and focus of my arty bits.... (and no, before you pose the question, my burning books of the past post had absolutely nothing to do with this monster blaze!)

It's going to be a very long, hard fire season.

in and out of the studio...

...and setting fire to things again....


I've just 'fired' up my final books tower for this fire season...


This time around I not only took my usual static digi shots but also had a high definition video capture the action - I'm planning on creating an installation that includes the video projected with the remains of the burnt books somehow included.... stay tuned (ps just viewed the raw video for the first time this morning - ooooooo so exciting! it looks FANTASTIC)



The fire sessions are a real family affair - I need FP to cart all the gear around on the back of the farm ute and drive the steel rod into the ground and light the fire and keep it going (and put it out when we're done....) ahhhhh he loves art....

Sass and EJ help to stack the tower and give appreciative comments (the best help!) - Brimmer (the BIG farm dog) isn't in this shot - but he made a regular appearance throughout the video (thanks Bimmy-Boy, a BIG help). Also out of shot is my dear ole dad - who not only was manning the video (whilst I took care of the digi camera) - he is also the RFS Bega Valley Group North Captain... so he had the official fire vehicle alongside - and as the area is currently beset with fire problems, he was in contact with fire command letting them know what was going on (the radio conversation was something to behold... 'the fire will be a tower of books'.... 'yes you heard right - it's a tower of about 50 encyclopaedias'.... 'apparently it's an artwork.... yes A.R.T.W.O.R.K'...) at this stage I think embarassment was overcoming him.... ahhhh what you do for family...



its so dry and unnaturally warm right now - it was an effort and a risk to light this tower - notice that I situated it beside one of the fast shrinking dams... just as an added precaution (the grass is so dry - we had to watch for spot fires...)




just over an hour later the fire began to slowly go out... we gave it some assistance with water - and headed home (just over the hill) for tea. Another day (night) of arty goodness for all the family....

recent work (from the paddock not the studio)

If you have been checking out the contents of my flickr site you may have noticed a couple of firey pics....


these are some of my recent works - stacks of old unwanted encyclopaedias that I've set on fire - then photographed the process of their demise... as I mention on my flickr site, these books were actually destined for landfill - they are unwanted funk and wagnall encyclopaedias that I collected at Rotary book sales...

yes I know its still disconcerting to see books burning (that is of course a part of the work) this was the first stack I torched - just after the Queens Birthday long weekend last month - traditional time of the bonfire. The work existed for a few hours (as it slowly burnt to the ground) and now remains as a photo...