Blue, 2010. Unique artist’s book of found text collaged onto a pianola roll fragment. Available.

Book arts is such a broad spectrum of things; sometimes I make things that start as a traditional book idea and end up far more sculptural. In my head, sculpture is defined as an object that can’t be handled. This piece is so fragile that it shouldn’t be handled, and so it can only sit on a plinth or shelf and be looked at. Mind you, there are many old books in the world that can be described in the same way!

Blue is the result of my finding a number of pianola rolls in an old bookshop. A number of them were in good condition, and intact, and so lovely that I have put them aside for a while, intending to use them eventually — or not, because one day I might find someone who can use them without destroying them. This particular roll shattered easily, and pulled apart at a simple tug, and seemed the perfect metaphor for a fragile ego.

The  notation holes, when the roll is turned sideways to its original purpose, reminded me of electronic music, and as I thought about this, my eye followed the pale, dotted, almost carbon-paper blue line that ran along the length of the yellowing paper and I started humming New Order’s song Blue Monday.

I wrote down the lyrics and marvelled at how simple and timeless they are. There is nothing except the sound of the music to link it to any particular time or place. I thought to myself that I could probably find all the words I needed from any of the old novels I have piled in my studio for recycling. With that in mind, I looked through all the old books to see if any of them had faded to the same colour as the pianola roll, and to my delight, the only one that had was a cheap copy of Louisa M. Alcott’s Little Women. I found all the necessary words within one section of the book (a sewn section that is easily unpicked, as opposed to a chapter), and thus Blue came into being.

Blue was made for the group exhibition 3 Chords and the Truth at ANCA Gallery in April/May, 2010.

Curated by Narelle Phillips, this is a group exhibition featuring myself,
Geoffrey Dunn (photography)
Nicci Haynes (printmaking)
Philippa Hofgartner (painting)
Andrew Mayo (photography)
Franki Sparke (printmaking)
Peter Stewart (glass)
Anne Warren (works on paper)

I made a selection of paper works using discarded sheet music, letterpress, and various fun things that I found along my trail. What follows are bad phone camera images that are placemarkers until I can get some better ones: I’ve just arranged to have some better ones taken while I’m up in Mackay!

This is called The Midnight Serenade. It’s not really wearable, it’s more a thought about how people treasure a song. Each bead is made from a line of sheet music, and the whole bracelet is the entire song. It is sitting on some bits of pianola roll, with the title of the song, inside an old cigarette case.

Another not-really-wearable piece, called Secret Thrill. Again, something about treasuring music, this time the secret love of a daggy song. It’s a wooden bangle covered with the sheet music of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, with lots of rhinestones that have been stuck on the inside of the bangle.

More on treasuring music. In fact, the whole suite of works are about music, nostalgia and holding something close to yourself. This one, using sheet music and origami, is called Humming. It sold on opening night.

A close-up of Humming.

This one is a collage work on paper. I was playing with an old hymn book that had lovely thin, fragile paper. I was making origami shapes from the paper, but it wasn’t feeling like anything special. Then I found myself becoming entranced with the yellowy amber-like quality of the copious amounts of decaying sticky-tape that had been used by a previous owner to hold the book and pages together. There was no page left under the tape, only this luminous transparent gold. So I made a piece using the tape. It’s a conservator’s nightmare, but it’s a beautiful golden piece. I called it Stain.
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A close-up of Stain.

This is the end of a pianola roll, collaged with text. I called it Blue. The holes in the roll when looked at from the side looked like electronic pulses, and as I pondered over them I found myself humming ‘Blue Monday’ by New Order. When I thought about the words, they seemed very straightforward and simple. I looked through my cut-up collection of books for the right paper colour (it had to be a very particular aged brown) and found it in an old cheesy edition of Little Women. I found all the words I needed in just two chapters of LW.

A close-up of Blue, with text.

I made a stack of posters to advertise the show, using wood type on newsprint and sheet music. Finally, I printed on the backs of the two books of sheet music I’d taken apart for the posters. I thought I’d make them a bit special for the show, so i collaged them. This one is called Vocal Chords

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A close-up of Vocal Chords.

And this one is called Reflex.

A close-up of Reflex. The song lyrics on the right are the ‘rap’ from Michael Jackson’s Thriller. I can’t believe they made Vincent Price say y’awl’s neighbourhood!

All the works are for sale through the ANCA Gallery until the show finishes.