Fired books. Jawbone.

Fired books. Birds eye view.

 

 

 

 

One of my books did not shrink in firing - little bugger! It fused flat, forming a beautiful desolate white landscape.

A trace of 1968.

Traces. The Truth of Blacksmith Ignotas

Some of the books have been damaged and I had to remove them from their bases. I was amazed to find those beautiful traces of the books absorbed into the white earthenware: some ash fused into a glaze,  markings of iron (?) in the ink. Mesmerizing.

Time out. Thinking.

I have decided to not go to the workshops for a few days, to gather my thoughts and to decide on the next step. My fired books are all looking great and and I seem to have developed the skill to build the bases just fine. But what is next? A few people have asked if i am going to scale it up. Should I? I have got one large book in line for firing, but I am not sure if changing the scale can be called  "developing". I have got a black base made, to try "black" burning. I have got some ideas for casting and painting. Or should I get back to my porcelain and develop a new line of thought?

Compulsive hoarding and letting my artwork go.

I do not let things go easily. I am a hoarder. Our loft and basement are full to the brim. I am running out of space in my studio room too.  I remember reading somewhere an interview with Cornelia Parker. She said she started going suspended sculpture, because that was the only clear space in her house. She is hoarder as well. Susan Hiller is a hoarder too. Not a bad company - see!

Anyway - I do not let things go easily - and that includes my work*. Therefore, it was highly therapeutic for me to spend the private view talking to all those people of very very different arts/non-arts backgrounds, who were interested in my work. It almost felt that the work did not belong to me anymore. It had a life of it's own. And - wow - it was fascinating to watch that life! Many were intrigued/mortified by the fact that I burn books; but they were simultaneously drawn by the beauty of the result. Some were curious about the history and the background of my work. Some were asking about the techniques. Some were taken by the fragility. Many asked about the title. Some thought it was good example of how open-minded book arts are. Some asked about my course, assuming I was a good representation of it (I am not).

I have a few more of those 1968 pieces. Some are damaged, some went wrong. Why do I keep them?

 Here is an article about Song Dong installation and compulsive hoarding.





*Not the certain work from about a year ago, that I passionately want to burn (and keep the ashes of course!)

Porcelain paper.

I started making those porcelain pages with an idea of binding them later. When I lifted one against the light, I saw the translucent marks - like water marks on paper - so delicate, so fragile, just barely there. I will most certainly not be binding the pages anymore. Possibly hang them like panels against the light? Suspended around the room? Like white linen drying in the sun.

Burning books - no11; 1968.

I am taking books, that no longer have the society that supports them (uh! I have got a barn full of them!) and I reduce them to an immensely fragile state (firing in the kiln) - so fragile, that they may disintegrate in hands - just like the memory of the times, that they represent.

Porcelain paper - it has not collapsed!

Oh - the joys of opening the kiln! Regardless of all the efforts you never know what awaits inside.

My paper porcelain is holding together very well! They have collapsed slightly, thought. Well - and there are a few other issues that need to be resolved. I might glaze them on the inside.

Burning books - no11; 1969

1969. Blank.

The number of books in young people's personal libraries increased 60 per cent. (from Illustrated History of the USSR)

So?




I am taking books, that no longer have the society that supports them (uh! I have got a barn full of them!) and I reduce them to an immensely fragile state (firing in the kiln) - so fragile, that they may disintegrate in hands - just like the memory of the times, that they represent.

Burning books - no10; 1978

Before:



After:



This one has been completely destroyed. I do like the aesthetics of it, even though, the outcome looks like a disaster. I do like this book. I love the traces on the clay and metal clips. It is also holding better together, so it could be mounted on the wall.





Where do I find a studio with a kiln for the future?



I am taking books, that no longer have the society that supports them (uh! I have got a barn full of them!) and I reduce them to an immensely fragile state (firing in the kiln) - so fragile, that they may disintegrate in hands - just like the memory of the times, that they represent.

Burning books - no9; 1974

1974. Kaunas. That was the year when this book got published. Just think - somebody took time and effort to put it together. Somebody thought it was good and bought it. Possibly read it. Underlined words. Thought about it. Made notes.
And it has all become useless now. Discarded. Baby has outgrown the clothes.
The memory of that time and that truth have become faint and fragile. Disintegrating in mind, burning in flames, rotting away in basements.
In my case - sitting in the boxes and blocking the room.


Well - yesterday this first proper book came out of the kiln. There are a number of things I do not like and I will be changing. On the whole, it is heading the right direction. It will certainly be all white (I was considering gold and black) - like a face without blood. The book will certainly be fired on the tablet. There will be no glaze.



I am taking books, that no longer have the society that supports them (uh! I have got a barn full of them!) and I reduce them to an immensely fragile state - so fragile, that they may disintegrate in hands - just like the memory of the times, that they represent.

"Hidden Spaces" sketchbook exhibition: sharing a vitrine with Grayson Perry.

Everybody knows Grayson Perry. Even my daughter (10) knows the potter who looks like Alice (in the Wonderland) and makes vases with penises. OK, she may not be an average ten year old. She does get dragged around galleries a bit. However, it did impress her, that I had to share a vitrine with the Grayson Perry!

Danny has assembled this really interesting exhibition of sketchbooks, that were shown at Camberwell for a week. I brought in mine just as he was arranging the others, therefore, I had a chance to flick through some amazing - I mean really amazing - and creative sketchbooks.

Dannys own sketchbooks are quite remarkable. He uses old books and works on top of them: a kind of pamplicest. Stephen Cooper's and Janet Bradley's sketchbooks are very "there": bright, bold, full. Natalie Yaxi brought bound volumes of junk mail. Grayson Perry, Christa Harris and me contributed "pocket" sketchbooks, used for casual notes and scribbles. I flicked though Perry's book yesterday. It was full of Jesuses and Marys and churches. A few rabbits on the bikes, a few babies, a few pretty girls. A hint of darkness. A fire. Some writing. It was not much different from his ceramics. However, I am tempted to say, that I enjoyed the sketchbook more, than his vases (and I do love his ceramics!). Is it because it is so much more immediate? More personal? Like looking into the person? Like getting to know the person.
(I suppose aesthetics of the work is the same, but content changes from personal to public).

Hidden Spaces Exhibition
For most artists sketchbooks have been spaces in which to rehearse and experiment without the pressure
of the outside world. This removal of audience creates a non judgemental, safe environment which
stimulates explorative play which in turn can feed the creative process. Many artists have told me they
consider their sketchbook work as important as final published works yet have never exhibited or shown
this work before, this still surprises me. The purpose of this exhibition is to bring together sketchbooks from
a range of successful practitioners that for the most part have never been exhibited.

1 Danny Aldred
My sketchbooks represent a process centred around the enjoyment of collage and the final completed
books on the most part have inadvertently become finished pieces in their own right. As a child Brian
Eno described his enjoyment of collecting fossils from the beach and described this process as ‘beyond
thinking’, when I am collecting material and making my sketchbooks I can relate to this comment.

2. Janet Bradley

3 Stephen Cooper
This selection of some 60 drawings is taken from a total of 300 drawings executed over four consecutive
days in Paris. The project began on the Eurostar journey from London and was completed during the return
journey. The drawings shown here were made in my hotel room, many between 2 and 4 in the morning
when I deliberately worked in complete darkness and was unable to view the paper. The subjects come
from memory and are concerned with science, brain function and consciousness. I have made drawings
in hotel rooms across the world for over 15 years but never “blindly” in this way or as intensively. They
represent a synthesis between collaged images and the process of drawing and thinking - a kind of collaged
drawing. I am interested in the unity of this process. My intention is to publish my drawings in various hotel
rooms in a series of books as well as to use them as a basis for a new body of painting installations.

4 Margaret Cooter
Crossing through, I become the last and only person to read this journal - having written it more than 10
years ago. The viewer is spared the moans, fears, doubts, exhortations, and trivia; dissolved or cancelled,
un-written, they are buried but have been ceremonially honoured. The insights, plans, ideas live on,
elsewhere; all content has been transformed.

5 Egidija Čiricaitė
My favorite sketchbooks are not the project books, but the handbag sketchbooks used for random thinking,
drawing and visual experimentation. I compile them using whatever is available at hand at that instant:
pens, soot, menus, weeds, tickets, etc. Those sketcbooks imprint the moment; they are directly linked to
the past through the existencial traces of the time and space where they were produced.

6 Andrew Foster
A sketchbook for me goes beyond an object, a sketch or a finished piece. Its simply about an attitude to
visual exploration. Its a place where you can allow yourself to visually be sick, without any pressure, pre
conceptions or boundaries from yourself or others. Its an intellectual space to play with intent.

7 Christa Harris

8 Charlotte Knox-Williams
I stopped making sketchbooks, and instead re-applied the principles or functions of these across my
practice. This folded drawing is a part drawn from a wider inter functioning conglomeration of work that
includes film, text, performance and installation.

9 Grayson Perry

10 Stewy
The selected sketch books were created in Toulouse, France in 1994. Between life drawing lessons I
explored the streets for three months making pen and ink architectural drawings, collages, photos,
collecting, food packaging, wallpaper scraps, tickets etc.

11 Natalie Yiaxi

Deficit: loss of language, loss of identity, loss of memory

.

"Neurology's favorite word is "deficit", denoting an impairment or incapacity of neurological function: loss of speech, loss of language, loss of identity, loss of memory, loss of vision, loss of dexterity and a myriad other lacks and losses of specific functions or faculties." (from Oliver Sacks "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat")

Drawing memory absence: I do not remember.

I do not remember. No words obscure my thoughts.










I do not remember things very well.
There is a swing and a budgerigar in the upper part of my brain.
Budgerigar whistles.
I had an MRI scan.

Migration without words: porcelain aeroplanes

A while ago I said I was going to revive the whimsical and the dark work I used to do. Uh - so much of that! China does not come it black.

I would like to suspend these airplanes like migrating cranes. It is in development. Memories, identities that migrate with us. Memories that loose the verbal expression and become visual ghosts of themselves, that wear into nothingness with time.

"Language disguises thought". (TLP, 4.002)

Snaps from the car: between Islington and Clapham

Drawing: the world is independent of my will.

"The world is independent of my will" (TLP, 6.373)

I had this A3 drawing ready for the MA Xmas party. Unfortunately, Lambeth dug up our road without warning today. Resurfacing. As a result I could not get to Camberwell.
Suddenly, Wittgenstein's quote seems very relevant.

Burning books - no8

Introduction

The Getaway





I am taking books, that no longer have the society that supports them (uh! I have got a barn full of them!) and I reduce them to an immensely fragile state - so fragile, that they may disintegrate in hands - just like the memory of the times, that they represent.

Burning books - no7

I have started accumulating samples now to produce more predictable results.

The results are ephemeral and somewhat other-wordly indeed, but not so fragile, that I would not be able to touch or transport them.

I am taking books, that no longer have the society that supports them (uh! I have got a barn full of them!) and I reduce them to an immensely fragile state - so fragile, that they may disintegrate in hands - just like the memory of the times, that they represent.

Porcelain airplanes.

Paper airplanes. In porcelain.

Headstones. Shatter. Gone.

As a late teenager I had a screensaver on my computer, that showed different ways to fold paper aircrafts. I do remember making one that actually flew.