This blog site will continue to show examples of my art works as they occur.
ANDREW NORRIS is an artist who enjoys making extraordinary books which possess all the imagination and skill of a painting or piece of sculpture... (review from What's On in London 1995)
A selection of pictures of my artist's books as a prelude to exhibitions to be held simultaneously in Zagreb and Bristol, England, to mark International Literacy Day on September 8th, 2008
Artist's Books are art works that are often, but not exclusively, in the form of a book. This book-form itself may take on a variety of shapes. They may be published in multiples, in editioned versions or as unique works.
Artist’s books, while being a convenient name for this genre of art work is, for me, only appropriate in as much as that the principle of books, to gradually reveal their content page by page or detail by detail fits all the works I make. Therefore, I consider a stick, with its text spiraling along its length, a mathematical construction that twists and turns to meet words with images or a cow-hide covered frieze of friesian cows as falling under the same ‘artist’s book’ umbrella. In common, too, these works have a tactile quality, satisfying to hold and explore with the hand.
The shape of the art-book-work is always driven by its content, and it is often that the same idea will appear in a variety of formats. Since the format will always bring something to the content, comment on it in someway, alter its context and bring out a different resonance. This is particularly true of the works broadly titled, POETree, where the same few words can occur in different forms altering the way in which these words are read, meanings understood and even the way that the objects are handled, particularly if the text is printed on leaves rather than stones.
A land art piece created over two days in August 2008 in Zvecaj.
This work, which is part of the 'e ART h works' series, uses natural
materials found in the location. This is a longer and better quality
version of a previous posting.
earth then earthen
i The Poem Tree, 2005
ii An Ear to the Earth, 2006
iii 1000 Years, 2006
iv Field Songs, 2008
The Poem Tree.
In 1844 Joseph Tubbs climbed to the top of
Wittenham Clumps in Berkshire, England,
to carve a poem on a beech tree, this is his story
which continues to resonate up to the present.
Full text appears on http://thepoemtree.blog.hr
An Ear to the Earth
is a sequence of 14 poems
written from the point of view of fields, soil, seeds,
animals, plants and trees.
1000 Years
A group of oak trees give an account
of their lives over a millennium.
Field Songs
Takes the form of a series of parallel
monologues between the present and former
owner of a house and piece of land in Croatia.
These monologues occupy similar ‘spiritual’
space if not temporal.
Collectively, these four works entitled, earth then earthen,
explore identity and the nature of one’s
relationships to and presence in the natural
environment.
* * * *
Film of the Poem Tree taken on 8mm and video
between 1991 and 1995.
Edition of 20 copies
Hand-painted folder with instructions
An artists' book in the form of a mathematical construction,
a so-called 'flexi-hexigram'. An endless book that requires
9 'twists' to return to the point started. Each twist reveals
a different combination of the available triangular panels
meeting words with different combinations of images to form
a narrative that the reader creates for themselves.
These five small books produced in 1995 examine the way that
romantic rural imagery has been exploited in the advertising
of dairy and wheat based products. Images of a landscape
of gently rolling hills, sunsets, hedged fields and
peopled with muscular men and radiant women working the
land with their hands tap into a latent desire held by many
to 'get back to nature'.
Video presentation of a selection
of pages compiled in 2008
* * * *
Books to go on exhibition in the Gradska Knjižnica,
Zagreb City Library, on the 8th September 2008,
and simultaneously in Bristol, England, to celebrate
International Literacy Day.
Unique work, acrylic text on 3 oak panels
40 x 32 cms
Through Anglo-Saxon verse we ascend to the source of the English language
where words are rooted in things and full of meaning - perhaps more fully meant.
* * * * *
poem I
A wood some trees
As well as these
A well a wood
As well they would
The wood as well
As the trees
poem II
On the brow of a clough
Sits a chough on a bough
Three brothers in the rough
Take turns at the plough
A boat on the lough
Is lost in a trough
And the sough of the wind
Is more than, more than enough
poem III
The wild wind wanders
Round the cold wintry wood
Wondering whether
It would waken the weather
Winding its windy fingers
Round an old wold world
poem IV
The field leaves its yield
To the breeze in the trees
And the hedge at the edge
Yields to the leaves
In the heart of that hedge
By the edge of the wood
A fledgling sings, concealed
As a herd in the field
e ART h works XXIII - S.T.O.N.E. Sonnets #1 #2, 2002
Unique work, each 10 x 5cms, acrylic on stones
These 2 works seem to undermine the portability of this much
anthologized poetic form. Each sonnet is composed from words
compiled from the letters, S.T.O.N.E.
A Panoranimation
An 18 meter drawing passes behind a small window taking the
viewer on a journey through space, around the world, through the
oceans to swim with the dolphins only to emerge along the
southern coast of England and over the hills of Sussex and
Berkshire until the White Horse is found.
Coloured pencil on black paper. Box of cardboard and wood
Stills from an 8mm film recording a walk in the hills of
Hampshire, England. Film accompanied by a narrative
text
Book published in an edition of 60 copies
1995
Video presentation of artists' book, 2008
* * * * *
One of a series of art-book-works to be exhibited
simultaneously in Zagreb and Bristol, England
to mark International Literacy Day, 8th September 2008.
An 'endless' bookwork. Each open page shows 4 panels.
By a system of opening, closing and rotating all 16 panels
are revealed until the reader returns to the point where
they started. Pictures illustrate a stone being cast into
a pond, dissipating ripples and the reflection of a passing
cloud until the water is calm again.
Edition of 20 copies
18 x 9 cms (closed)
1993
* * * * *
One of a series of works to be exhibited in Croatia and
England in September 2008 to mark International Literacy Day
Endless sentence on the word 'EARTH' #1 - Art-book-work, 2002
Art work in which the word EARTH is written repeatedly.
As the reader rotates the work 'new' words, suggested
by the irregular spacing between letters, are revealed
with which the reader is able to construct their own text
and meaning.
Acrylic on beech wood
2002
* * * *
One of a series of artist's books to be exhibited in September 2008
to coincide with International Literacy Day
