Coming soon: ARTIST BOOKS & PORTFOLIOS

SAVE THE DATE

I’m very much looking forward to exhibiting with renowned book artists Elizabeth Banfield and Theo Strasser in Artist Books & Folios at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery in September. Further details will follow shortly.

Excited as I am to be part of this show, my attendance will be merely in spirit, alas, as I will be in London for its entire duration. 

Image on invitation: Homo Insecta Portfolio,  2013, unbound artist book, hand-coloured linocuts, inkjet-printed text, 29.5 x 21 cm. 

Click on invitation for an enlarged view.

Homo-insecta: An unnatural history portfolio

The unbound artist book Homo-insecta: An unnatural history portfolio (2013, hand coloured linocuts with text, ed: 10) was originally created for the group show Wonder Room, a contemporary take on the Wunderkammer, at Maroondah Art Gallery back in 2013

From 30 June - 7 July the book will be exhibited at Melbourne Athenaeum Library during my residency for Melbourne Rare Book Week.

It's no coincidence that the re-emergence of Homo-insecta: An unnatural history portfolio corresponds with the bicentenary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. This significant anniversary is commemorated on a grand scale in My Monster at RMIT Gallery (29 June - 18 August). Three of my 'unnatural history' watercolours are part of that show. A plethora of rare Homo-insecta specimens can also be viewed in PATTERNS OF COLLECTING: From the Bower at The Johnston Collection, current until 18 September.

I’ll be setting up the exhibition at Melbourne Athenaeum Library next Friday, 29 June. My residency commences the following day, Saturday, 30 June and concludes on Saturday, July 7. If you're planning to sample some of the many delights of Melbourne Rare Book Week, do drop in and say hello.

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

Between the Sheets: Installation Views

Between the Sheets, the international artist books exhibition that includes my unbound book, Homo-insecta, an Unnatural History Portfolio, opened on March 7. Co-curator David Frost has just sent a series of installation views, including the following. They are very much appreciated by those of us who were unable to make the journey to the other side of the continent.  (See also Blog Post Thursday, February 19).

Between the Sheets installation view (1). Foreground, right:
my artist book, Homo-insecta. Click image for enlarged view.

Between the Sheets installation view (2). Foreground: altered books
by Debbie Hill. Click image for enlarged view,

Between the Sheets

Gallery Central

12 Aberdeen Street

PERTH WA

Exhibition dates: 7 March – 2 April.

To view all the works, go here:

 http://www.galleryeast.com.au/general/books2015/main.htm

Between The Sheets: Artists' Books 2015

The winged creatures in our unbound artist book, Homo-insecta are about to touch down in Perth, Western Australia. The book is part of Between the Sheets: Artists’ Books 2015, which features the work of 53 international and Australian book artists. Presented by Gallery East in conjunction with Gallery Central, the exhibition is held in parallel with the 7th International Artists Books exhibition in Vilnius, Lithuania. 

Homo-insecta, 2013, unbound artist book, linocuts with inkjet printed text, 

33h x 24w x 1.5d cm, edition 2/10. (Selected page views).
Photograph: Tim Gresham

Between the Sheets: Artists’ Books 2015

Gallery Central

12 Aberdeen Street

PERTH WA 6000

To be launched by Helen Cole, Senior Librarian, Australian Library of Art, State Library of Queensland 6pm, Friday 6 March.

Opening times: Monday-Friday 10 am-4pm; Saturday 12-4 pm

Exhibition dates: 7 March – 2 April

International Artists

Zimbabwe: Tafadzwa Gwetai
United States of America: Cristina de Almeida

United Kingdom: Thurle Wright

Singapore: Jesvin Yeo

Lithunania: Kęstutis Vasiliūnas

Italy: Loretta Cappanera; Virginia Milici

Germany: Christiane Fichtner; Dorothea Fleiss

Australian Artists

ACT: Caren Florance; Nicci Haynes

New South Wales: Caelli Brooker; Anne-Maree Hunter; Yvette Sullivan

Queensland: Fiona Dempster; Robyn Foster; Helen Malone; Stephen Spurrier

South Australia: Beth Evans; Margaret Sanders

Victoria: Debbie Hill; Petr Herel; Deborah Klein; Clyde McGill; Lesley O'Gorman

Western Australia: Eve Arnold; Kathy Aspinall; Denise Brown & Gail Robinson; Ella Borrello; Kristen Brownfield; Caitlin Dominey; Sandra Dunbar; Martin Heine & Gunnar Müller; Emmaline James; Shana James; Pam Langdon; Nikki Lundy; Aliesha Mafrici; Elisa Markes-Young; Dragica Milunovic; Laura Mitchell; Jánis Nedéla; Manon Raath; Stewart Scambler; Annette Seeman; Jessica Tan; John Teschendorff; Paul Uhlmann; Rebecca Westlund; Angelyne Wolfe; Gera Woltjer

Special guest artist, 2014 APW Summer School

The Australian Print Workshop has invited me to be a special guest artist of the 2014 APW Summer School, along with Vicki Couzens, Juan Ford, Tim Jones, Roslyn Kean and Lisa Roet.

My workshop will begin with a field trip to the Natural History section of Melbourne Museum. I have researched much of my own work there, particularly in the brilliant Bugs Alive! section.

During the three-day workshop I will produce a limited edition print in collaboration with Master Printer Simon White.

Full details of the APW Summer School workshops can be accessed via the links below:

Linocut and the Melbourne Museum

Instructor: APW Printer Simon White

Tuesday 28 January – Thursday 30 January

10 am – 4 pm each day

Australian Print Workshop
219 Gertrude Street
Fitzroy Vic 3065
03 9419 546
http://www.australianprintworkshop.com/default.asp

Download the enrolment form here:
http://www.australianprintworkshop.com/education/pdf/APW_Summer_School_2014.pdf

Illustrations from top:

Louise Weaver, le tigre, photo-lithograph (cover art, APW brochure)

Heterodontonyx bicolour wasps, Melbourne Museum

Deborah Klein, Spider-hunting Wasp Woman 

2013, from Homo-insecta Portfolio, 2013, linocut, hand coloured 29.5 x 21 cm

Homo-insecta Portfolio, 2013

Following directly from my previous post, here is a preview of selected works from the completed Homo-insecta portfolio, which this time next week will be encased in a cabinet as part of the exhibition Wonder Room at Maroondah Art Gallery. *

At the initial meeting of artists and curators at Maroondah Art Gallery last Monday, the consensus was that the work would be too vulnerable on an open plinth; I was advised that it be placed in a display case. Admitting that this would make it impossible to view the entire contents of the folio, curator Lisa Byrne suggested that a different page be turned over every day. Because it is unlikely that even the keenest gallery visitor will return on several consecutive days, I have come up with what I hope will be an acceptable compromise. Over the last couple of days I've constructed a unique facsimile edition, reproducing the linocuts as inkjet prints. They are printed on Somerset enhanced mould-made paper made from 100% cotton and the quality of the reproductions is excellent. Gallery visitors will now have something akin to the experience of interacting directly with the original work.

Pictured above are selected highlights from the original.

Homo-insecta Portfolio, 2013

From top:

Front cover (detail) with Frog Hopper Woman

Portfolio: 33H x 24W x 1.5 D cm; cover art: 22.5 x 12.5 cm

Title page

Selected illustrations:

Shield Bug Woman

Spider-hunting Wasp Woman

Shield-backed Katydid Woman

Gold Beetle Woman

Linocuts, hand coloured, 29.5 x 21 cm
The Homo-insecta Portfolio is limited to an edition of 10

My fellow Wonder Room artists are Rona Green, Heather Shimmen, Filomena Coppola and Paul Compton. To see the invitation, which features Paul's superb ink drawing Pickled, 2013, click HERE.

The exhibition will be launched at 6.30 pm, Thursday 17 October. Our opening night speaker is Dr Petra Kayser, Curator, Department of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Victoria.

*Wonder Room
Maroondah Art Gallery
32 Greenwood Avenue
Ringwood, Vic
Phone 03 9298 4542
Opening hours: Tuesday - Friday 10 - 4; Saturday 12 - 4

Homo-insecta Portfolio: an update

Work for the Wonder Room exhibition is at last nearing completion. Every piece I’ve made for the show is multi-faceted, essentially a series of small collections, which will sit alongside contrasting works created by fellow Wonder Room artists Rona Green, Heather Shimmen, Paul Compton and Filomena Coppola. 

Last Tuesday I proofed the remaining linocuts for the Homo-insecta portfolio, my final work for the exhibition.

As objects the lino blocks are almost worthy of their own place in a Cabinet of Curiosities. They won't be making an appearance in our show, however. But I've singled out a small selection and grouped them together as if in a display cabinet (see above, top).

Immediately following this is a studio view, taken earlier this week at Ballarat, showing proofs of the complete set of eight Homo-insecta prints, plus cover art.

The next step is to hand colour the prints, finalise the text and finish assembling the portfolio.

Linocut in progress #3: What the Katydid did

Destined for the Homo-insecta Portfolio: Shield-backed Katydid homo-insecta (ORTHOPTERA: TETTIGONIIDAE, Siliquofera sp.)

Katydids are related to crickets, and this one reaches 13 cm, making it one of the world’s largest. It’s common in New Guinea and has been collected twice at Iron Range on Cape York Peninsula. The shield-backed katydid closely resembles the rainforest leaves of its habitat. (1) 

(1) Australian Geographic, Giant Insects, pages 54-61, July-September, 2006.