Pictured above L - R: vertical accordion artist books A Tall Tale, Castles in the Hair and Bats in the Belfry, each 2013, pigmented drawing ink on Khadi paper, cloth bound. All three will be exhibited at Melbourne Athenaeum Library during Melbourne Rare Book Week, in keeping with this year’s focus on gothic fiction.
The literary classification of The Lady in the Tower has a special niche in gothic storytelling. The principal point of departure for Bats in the Belfry is the peripheral but pivotal character Bertha Mason, the madwoman in the attic in Charlotte Bronte's gothic novel Jane Eyre (1847). The same character is the protagonist of the Jean Rhys novel, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) in which Bertha’s original name is revealed to be Antoinette Cosway and the story told from her point of view.
As artist-in-residence at Melbourne Athenaeum Library, I’ll be developing new projects centring on female characters (and in one case, a character who never quite was) from the gothic novels Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley and Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Brontë.
Residency dates: 30 June - 7 July
Library hours:
Saturday: 10 am - 2 pm
Monday, Tuesday & Thursday: 10 am - 6 pm
Wednesday: 10 am - 8 pm
Friday: 10 am - 4 pm
Artist talk: Wednesday, 4 July 6 -7 pm
Saturday: 10 am - 2 pm
Monday, Tuesday & Thursday: 10 am - 6 pm
Wednesday: 10 am - 8 pm
Friday: 10 am - 4 pm
Artist talk: Wednesday, 4 July 6 -7 pm
