Remembering 5th March 2007

  Absence by Helen Malone

The 5th March 2014 marks the seventh anniversary of the Bombing of Al-Mutanabbi Street, the street of booksellers and book culture in Baghdad since the 8th century.  30 people were killed,100 wounded and countless books destroyed and burned.

Many events and readings have been scheduled in different countries to remember this event by members of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Project.

My offering to never forget this day is to share one of the most powerful books made for the Al-Mutanabbi Street Project, the book I Dare You, bound, burned, filmed and recorded by Stephanie Sauer which can be seen on vimeo here.

The video lasts for 15 minutes, the amount of time it takes to recite the list of sites where books were burned or destroyed throughout known history, while you see Stephanie's book being made and subsequently burned.  

 "I Dare You is my hymn to each and every page, person, symbol, codex, mural, tapestry, scroll, carving and oral account throughout history that has been banned, shamed, destroyed or subverted."

Stephanie Sauer

A Near Miss

Hello, it's been a bit quiet here.  I haven't been working on books but other things over the hot summer.
I returned recently from a trip to Sydney where I'd been doing some specific research in the Mitchell Library in the State Library of NSW.  The trip was very focused and I didn't have time to do anything else.
I was excited to discover a large exhibition showing in the Library while I was there called Born to Concrete: Visual Poetry from the Collections of Heide Museum of Modern Art and the University of Queensland.

There was a lot of work by well known people working in the field like Alex Selenitsch, Richard Tipping, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Sweeney Reed, Mike Parr and so on. But I was delighted to see the work of Queenslanders like Madonna Staunton, Nicholas Zurbrugg, Malcolm Enright, Vernon Ah Kee, Eugene Carchesio,Scott Redford, Luke Roberts and others.

I'm ashamed to say that this excellent and large exhibition was on display at the University of Queensland only a few kilometres from where I live from 6 July - 6 October 2013 and I didn't know about it.  It then travelled to the State Library of New South Wales where it has been on show since 23 November 2013 until 16 February 2014 so I just managed to see it before it closed - I would have said a show not to be missed!.

Merry Christmas

 

 

 

 

Mini Bloom Books

 

Linocut pages assembled to form a small Bloom book.

 

 

I made them with white and red paper.

 

 

I think the covers were inspired by the Rising sun of the Australian Diggers' badges interpreted in sculpture in the previous post.

 

 



Remembrance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

500 Handmade Books

 

 

My copy of Lark Books 500 Handmade Books Volume 2 arrived on my doorstep this morning, and it seems to have taken a while to get here as others have posted about it weeks ago.  I've enjoyed a long browsing session and was thrilled to see the work of a number of other Australian artists I know included.  The book is well produced and enjoyable to read with all the information about the work listed under the images.

 

My piece Ten Books on Architecture is included in the book and I was pleased to find out that Lark had used my image as one of five used on their blog here to promote the book.

 

I made the third and final version of the "Ten Books" in July/August for the State Library of Queensland and this piece is now in their collection. 



Jacaranda Time

 

October in Queensland is the time when the Jacaranda trees are in flower and is usually greeted with some trepidation by University students as it heralds the time when they should be studying for their final examinations.

 

I have the immense pleasure of living across the road from a park called Jacaranda Park.

 

 

Lots of people walk past and photograph the trees and we've seen the occasional busload of Japanese tourists stop by to photograph the beauty of it all.



 

It's such a joy to sit on our back deck and enjoy this view of the park

 



 

It hasn't always been so.  The parkland was originally a waterhole by a dirt road as this photo taken by my grandparents in the 1920's shows.

 

 

I think it was in the 1940's - 1950's that the Council started to fill the waterhole and finally created the parkland for the local neighbours to enjoy - especially at this time of year.