Art I like - Linda Ekstrom

California artist Linda Ekstrom seems to have used a lot of Bibles in her work - she has tangled them -

and balled them up -

and done other things, like coating in ink-

"In my work," she says, "word is central, as related to the body, and to space and memory ... My work is anchored in the book, the book as a cultural and a symbolic object, and as a container of history, narrative and memory. The Bible, as the primary book of Western culture and central to my tradition, is the book I alter and transform into sculptures. One understanding of these altered Bibles draws from the Jewish tradition’s long use of Midrash, the interpretive mode which breaks down the scripture into phrases, then words, then letters to uncover meaning." She concludes: "Cultural forms, like text and art, can bring the sacred into cognitive recognition where we encounter and hold mystery in relation to our bodies in time and space, where we can recollect and interpret that which we have experienced."

Book du jour - Kochbuch

Another of my mother's cookbooks, not much used by the looks of it, but quite different from "Dr Oetker". Not only are the recipes set out differently, but the verbs used are in a different voice - the passive, which in German is called Leideform (appropriately! - thanks Erika for the info).

The food-pictures are all in one section at the back, and are in black-and-white. This gives different possibilities from those for Backen macht Freude.

title page of cookbook used as endpaper

the cut pages open out, to reveal photos

some cut-out words have been restored, but put in "blind"

dropping the cut-out words to the bottom of the page is one possibility

Cutting up just one recipe on the page - one that relates to the photo underneath - seems clearer than to cut up the entire page. (Thinking about single recipes brings to mind the index cards with recipes written on, and the boxes we used to keep them in...)

"Kochbuch" still has its dust jacket, which is very of-the-time -

On the scan, I extended the masking-tape edging that had been added to cover, in order to use the print-out for the cover, turning the edges round the board (something yet to do).

Book du jour - Backen macht Freude

A preliminary version of excerpts from my mother's much-used cookbook, Dr Oetker's Backen macht Freude (The Joy of Baking - ?), published in 1970. 

 I scanned in the photographs as double-page spreads, and because the printer didn't like the double-sided paper - to the point of chewing up the corners! - I ended up printing on one side of inferior paper and gluing the pages together in a "closed concertina" format (like a star). The filleted pages were folded round the edges, so that they could be lifted up at the centre  to show the photo beneath.

 The final page shows an amazing variation on the jelly roll, which I remember Mom making at the same time as she was working in the greenhouse (the parents had a nursery business) - she'd simply do the next step each time she happened to be back in the house.

The recipe for "mom's jelly roll torte" is in my recipe file, handwritten and dated July 1979. (She was younger then than I am now - isn't it interesting to look back at your parents' lives and compare ages...)

I'll be taking this book along to my tutorial (without the biographical info!) - but what is it I want feedback on ... does it need the missing words "returned" - either on the back of the cut pages, or with a bit of photoshopping on the photos? Does the "lift the pages" format work? Is it all too confusing? Is there a better format, given the limitations of printing the pages?

While looking at Tony's German cookbooks, one from the mid-1950s and one from the early 60s, we discussed the elaborate food, the carefully-made appetisers, and the array of complicated dishes, photographed in that stilted style that seems so old-fashioned now. These came after the end of postwar austerity, and with the availability of ingredients - and the cookbooks themselves - came the desire to use these fine foods, to spend time preparing them, to make them look "nice", to show off - a celebration of this opportunity and prosperity.

So in a way revisiting these cookbooks is about another type of forgetting - we have forgotten (or haven't needed to face) a worldview like this sudden access to "riches".

Moan on Monday - "tractors" on buses

It's great that buses are now accessible for people in wheelchairs, and for mothers with kids in prams and pushchairs. But yikes, the size of those pushchairs! not to mention the other clobber that is de rigeur for taking the kids out...........

Even worse, such is the competition for these spots that people in wheelchairs often have to let several buses go by before one has the space free (2 pushchairs = 1 wheelchair; 1 pushchair in place = not enough space for a wheelchair). Does one group have more right, or need, to use the bus than the other?

While we're on the topic of people on buses, it seems that standing just inside the (rear) door is *the* place to be for teenagers on the way home from school (one each side) and/or women (usually it's women rather than men) immersed in their phonecall and totally oblivious of people trying to get past them. What is it about being on the phone that removes someone from the real world?

Oops, maybe that's two moans instead of just one...

Scanning accident

This accident with the scanner is very pertinent to the "loss of ability" theme underlying the altered cookbook pages I'm currently putting together - the recipes and instructions really have disappeared, in fact been taken away. (Plus, a loss of ability in scanning?)

Not sure how how it happened, can't remember the exact circumstances - or even think of how it could have happened - but I like it.

Book du jour - remembering how to cook

The work is about loss of sequential memory - the type of memory that helps you know what to do next. It's about memories of how my grandmother stopped helping in the kitchen, unable to make the dishes she'd been cooking all her life; about how my mother's prodigious baking skills took ever more effort for her, and about how I myself have to check and recheck recipes to make sure nothing gets left out.

I scanned in pages from their cookbooks, both in German, and have started filleting them, mainly taking out the verbs.

I'll also scan in pages of my own Dr Oetker cookbook - the English-language version - and see what happens - whether it too will lose its verbs, or its nouns, and whether it's possible to combine it with the German-language version in some way (which would make it about something other than sequential memory...).

Starting on 18 July, Suzanne Lacy's "The Crystal Quilt" will be at Tate Modern. It was discussed on Women's Hour - if you can get BBC iPlayer you can hear it here .

suzanne lacy, the crystal quilt, 1985-7 photo- gus gustafson limited 

It's " a video, documentary, quilt, photographs and sound piece, combining the original elements of performance, activism and broadcast in an ambitious work that fuses social responsibility with the power of aesthetics". 


From the Tate website: "430 women aged over 60 from Minneapolis gathered together [in l987] to perform in a live tableau, lasting an hour and broadcast live on a public television network. Staged on a series of tables laid out on a huge square rug (designed by the painter Miriam Schapiro), the performers sat four to a table, their hands laid on the coloured tablecloths changing at ten-minute intervals to echo the shapes of different quilt blocks (the quilt being an emblem of the traditional sharing of North American female experience). While the performers discussed their experiences and reminiscences, the audience also listened to a soundtrack by composer Susan Stone mixing the voices of 75 women talking about ageing – personal observations, their own memories, and sociological analysis of the unused potential of older people."


More info is on the artist's website - http://www.suzannelacy.com/1980swhisper_minnesota.htm 

Memories are made of ...

A family wedding, Vancouver, 1955; I remember my dress - apricot eyelets and velvet ribbon sash - but not even the name of the girl holding flowers

What IS  memory, then? Something that whizzes round the brain, or is stored there, is probably the most common idea. I learned a bit about it while studying psychology at university - but that was decades ago, and much has been learned about it since.

Without a lifetime to study the neurophysiology and behavioural consequences of memory, where to start? Here, perhaps - a potpouri of articles on "maximising your memory" and insight into the processes involved in remembering.

Or here, a book about the science and stories of autobiographical memory.

Here you learn that "Memories are not stashed away, fully formed, in the vaults of the brain; they are constructed, when needed, according to the demands of the present. "


Hmm... where does the past end and the present start? Let's not go there... let's be scientific and classify the types of memory:

image from wikipedia

Portable pockets

Button-on pockets - what a great idea for those clothes that come without somewhere to keep that essential handkerchief or bus pass or loose change or little notebook and spare pen! These have a gusset, and cutesy ribbon ties (which could be replaced with elastication, for a bit of security) - and the buttons are self-covered in a way that would be very difficult to do at home.

However, the idea has appeal and practicality. Button on a different pocket, already loaded with appropriate contents, for a different occasion. Just remember to put some reinforcement inside the garment when you sew on the buttons.

And if you don't like making buttonholes, use loops instead.

Book du jour - filletage

As there seems to be no word for "the process of cutting things out of paper or, especially, book pages", I am inventing one:  filletage. The word sounds rather like frottage, the process of taking rubbings. However, filletage is a kind of erasure - subtractive - whereas frottage involves making marks and thus is additive.

The French word filletage has to do with threads, as on screws - some examples of such usage are here. The word fillet refers to a  band (especially a headband), and thus has evolved to denote a slice of meat or fish. In my own appropriated usage, filletage is a kind of cutting out of strips, like a fillet of fish is cut away from the bones.

filletage

I am filleting the (scanned in) pages of a German recipe book, my mother's recipe book, Dr Oetker's "Backen macht Freude". The splashes on the pages show which recipes were used most often, and those pages are the ones I've chosen for scanning in and cutting up.

First the verbs went - all the cooking processes that get muddled when your sequential memory (the ability to recall items in order) starts to get lost. Then I took out the names of ingredients as well - perhaps this is excessive. Something to think about before going further.

Ca marche...

"The Journey to the Studio" is now 1.85m long. In an hour of stitching, it grows 4cm. This week I've been starting the day with some stitching (before checking emails!), so it's moving along steadily. I'm aiming to do another 30 hours on it before the degree show needs to be set up, as it might (or might not...) be part of the display. I like the idea of this long thing running from the top of the wall to the floor, but that could be simply an impossible fantasy. In any case, a bit of early-morning stitching is a good way to catch up with (BBC) radio programmes  ... this morning I listened to a couple of episodes of A Good Read and Four Thought; other times it's been Late Junction or The Essay.

But back to the stitching. Looking at it all laid out, I prefer the neutral sections -

 over the colourful ones -

Each has its reasons, and its aesthetic. "Next time" I'll choose a palette before starting stitching, but this time it'll just go on as before.

Drawn on screen

David Hockney, who is no slouch when it comes to embracing new technology, is leading the way in terms of drawing on his ipad - as I'm sure you know by now! 

 And the results are very jolly. His years of work with pencil and brush translate to this medium.

Perhaps it's the intermediation [is that a word? - start again...] Perhaps it's the way the technology removes the act of drawing from the physical support of paper or canvas - and the fact that the "picture" doesn't exist in the "real world" - perhaps this is what makes this type of drawing (or is it painting?) seem so desirable, or even possible, for people who don't like to put pencil to paper.

To see how it's done, have a look at this video of Hockney at work in a Louisiana cafe.

Un-daunted

Almost there with the edition of "Seepage" - 10 copies are now sewn and awaiting their sleeves (rather than covers). At the top is an earlier version with a prototype sleeve, into which you slip the book from the side.

The version that didn't work looks like this - envelope-style -

What did work was printing the "colophon" information on the back so that it showed through once the book was removed, yet was a little difficult to read.

Something that was important was for the way the book was printed to be replicated in the reading - in other words, the use of the top and bottom of the piece of type (the letter and the blank) can be seen when the page is turned and the words that appeared on the previous page are overlain on the dark area that had been the blank bits of type -

Hopefully I can typeset and print the sleeves for the books tomorrow, and assemble them - and it will be done, finito, fertig - ready.

Daunted?

 Nothing on at college today, so it's a studio day - and it started not with checking emails, but with this -

After an hour, I got diverted by tasks arising from emails (s you do).

On getting back to the studio I tried to enthuse myself about finishing the "Seepage" books - they need cutting to size (page by page, so they align), and stitching down the edge, on the sewing machine -

 Somewhere under all this is a sewing machine (the knee lift is a clue) -

I am daunted at the prospect of unearthing it....

This seems like a good time to take stock, and to fill in the planning calendar  -

Suddenly there are only about 7 weeks before everything has to be ready for assessment and the degree show. Being daunted by little things like getting access to a sewing machine is hardly helpful! In situations like this, a short list of achievable actions is useful:
1. turn on radio (to provide diversion/motivation)
2. simply move things, don't try to put them away just yet
3. thread machine with black thread


(Sometimes you have to think out loud...)

Mohair ball

It started with cones of mohair found in a charity shop. 

 Black at the centre, then layers loosely and/or tightly wound -

 to make a beautiful smooth pink fluffy light sphere -

 covered in non-fluffy yarn and soaked with pva glue. Then, the surgery -

 scalpel and scissors. Brutal -

Mohair is not the best material. I find the "surgery" photos distressing. This doesn't seem to be the way forward with these balls. Think again (think: knitting...two beautiful light fluffy jumpers...later...)

There are other possibilities to try with the "memory balls". I have a little list.

Found in the rain

Wondering why I find this irresistible; wondering what might be done with it; wondering if it will languish in a cupboard for years....

Memory ball finished

final bits of fabric, final cone of yarn

different ways of winding

Now my memories of the weekend are held in the "orderly tangle" of thread.

Held safely? Held impenetrably? How can I get at these memories now ... could you get at them, if you wanted to? Unwinding the ball of thread, can I share my memories with you? Would either of us want to make that effort? Would the ball itself - its surface - be sufficient for us to be able to connect with each other, with the place, as we talk about it and what it holds? How is living different from remembering? How is remembering a part of living? Do we only have an identity because we have a memory?

How, you may well ask, is this a book? Well, it has sequence and it contains a narrative. Not text, but a narrative just the same. It can't be opened and "read" ... but I did document its making, and running through those photos allows for the construction of your own narrative. 

Found art Friday

Random rust

Rushing in to college for Symposium 2, a day of presentations about our practice and work, I had to stop briefly to photograph the time-scarred back of a portable road sign. I would have liked to take it home to ink up and print....

Exhibition catalogue - making the pages

The rubber stamps of our names and contact details have arrived, so it is high time to be getting on with making the pages for the catalogue of the final show. The team has nicely provided templates for placing the stamp, and is on hand for three days to give individual help.

The book will end up 24cm square, with a fold-out flap that holds only the stamped details; the artwork is on the oblong page beneath.

I was impressed by Di's screenprints, and the 85 cinnamon-filled bags she made to put on the plates.

My own idea is much simpler - and I found some exciting paper in the Paperchase sale. The "simple" idea involves, first of all, cutting each sheet of paper individually (and accurately), and folding; that took three hours -

Next, practice with the stamp, and fiddling about with the template to be able to position the stamp easily. It was ever so slightly (but noticeably) wonky - in the gluing of text to stamp, so needed compensating for. Sometimes I think we can be toooo fussy....

Because I used white paint, brushing it -carefully!- onto the stamp, the stamping took two hours. I took out the ones that were utterly illegible (having cut extras, knowing some of the stamping would need to be discarded). Batches were laid to dry -

Then, three holes punched along the fold - which could be done in batches - and the start of the sewing and gluing. Four hours of that, and about half the pages are finished. The sewing is a pamphlet stitch (but there is no pamphlet, just the stitch) - and the ends of the thread are taken to the edges and carefully, delicately, invisibly glued down. This forms quadrants and the occasional kink and wrinkle that disrupt the shiny black surface suddenly look "interesting" rather than annoyingly ugly.

In progress - about halfway done -

This is sort of what it will look like in the actual catalogue - but probably the previous page will be white, and there won't be red thread on the other folded pages -

 Open the page, and there's nothing much to see -

Make of that what you will......