No secret the winter here in the North East has been a bear. Cayuga Street has been renamed Cayuga Canyon as we search for new places to pitch the snow. Plenty of time to reflect on past efforts and prep for upcoming opportunities.
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Recent Exhibition
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Odd Volumes: Book Art from the Allan Chasanoff Collection
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven CT
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven CT
November 7, 2014– February 1, 2015
Odd Volumes showcased a selection of experimental and innovative works of book art from the 1960s to the present, drawn from a major collection given to the by Allan Chasanoff. The collection was assembled by Allen with the independent curator and artist Doug Beube, a fellow graduate of VSW.
The student-curated exhibition considered the transformation of books into sculptural objects from multiple perspectives: the history of book art, the relationship between form and content, and the interaction between the viewer and the work. It was beautifully installed with most of the work displayed on tables and shelves without the interference of glass walls or plexiglas bonnets, restoring an intimacy to the work robbed by protective displays.
The exhibit gave me the overall impression that the codex peaked as a cultural metaphor at the end of the 20th century, though the corpus of the object (it's paper, board, printing and collectivity) is still rich for mining. Text has moved on to new millennial devices.
The catalogue for the exhibit is stunning, taking a dos-a-dos format which combines the complete illustrated checklist of the exhibition in one volume with essays and interpretive photographs of the work on display in the other. An introduction by Gallery director Jock Reynolds* considers the book’s changing role in society and is followed by several brief essays that explore the transformation of books into sculptural objects from multiple perspectives.
*On a personal note, the two pieces of mine that are part of the Chasanoff collection were made while I was a resident at the Washington Project for the Arts in 1989 when Jock was the director. What goes round comes round . . .
Cover to Cover: a Discussion among Book Artists
was a panel discussion organized by the student curators that brought together artists who were exhibiting in the "Odd Volumes" exhibit and "CT (un) Bound", a companion exhibition at Artspace in New Haven: Marion Belanger, Jessica Drenk, Chris Perry, Yo Yarrington and Doug Beube, who moderated the panel. Brother Hugh attended, a retired professor of communication. He's been to my shows before, but I don't think he has ever heard me speak about my work in public. I think he gave me a pass, and sent me this pic from his iPhone:
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SPRING RESIDENCY
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I'll be an artist in residence at the Institute for Electronic Arts in June 2015. I propose to utilize their digital image making and laser cutting facilities to revisit and extend my early experiments in paper engineering-as-imagemaking. I'm excited about the opportunity to experiment with laser cutting as my personal digits (fingers) are not as agile as they used to be.
The Institute for Electronic Arts is a high technology research studio facility within the School of Art and Design, NYSCC, Alfred University, New York, committed to developing cultural interactions spurred by technological experimentation and artistic investigations.
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Summer Workshop
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Bookbinding for Photographers
June 15-19, 2015
Visiual Studies Workshop, Rochester NY
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Projects
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Goudy 150 Years Keepsake
The RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Frederic W. Goudy with a celebratory keepsake exchange coinciding with a Goudy 150th anniversary exhibition at the Cary Collection in Rochester. I worked with two versions of a quote attributed to Goudy, interleaving the lines to be read like the Joker in a deck of cards:
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Collaborative Book for JAB 37
Skúta Helgason and I are collaborating on a book for JAB, the Journal of Artists Books, which should appear later this year in JAB 38. Skúta and I have been collaborating since we were grad students at VSW in the '80s. We're using "ScottatúkS" to denote our efforts and exhibit together under that moniker at the New York Art Book Fair. A photograph on the back cover of JAB 36 was made by Brad Freeman, JAB Founder and Editor in Chief, at a dinner where we sealed the deal after the Book Fair last October.
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Thanks for scrolling.
