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Method:The book as a layered construction, with images that are creations from more than one print medium theorizing the concept of TRANSFORMATION.

10 pages, double sided prints on rice paper, with different images viewable on either side. Some representation of the spine of the book, with binding, some form of representation of the cover.




Paper: rice paper from antique store
I've let the rice paper dictate what happens - I want to photograph the final book in a light environment, because the beauty of the pages is that they are light - and the sun just shines through these holes in the paper, or scratches that went too deep.
Spine: steel rings bought
Book covers: hessian sacking found at tip
Bindng: rings and raffia bought

Thoughts:
One of the main things that have come out of this excercise so far, is that I've just allowed one idea to flow through to another - and through that I've not been afraid to make mistakes... I LOVE mistakes, they add that 'on purpose mishap', that just adds a little something to the piece. With using the rice paper (amongst other papers) I've realised I am enamoured with process more than form... I see everything as part of the overall concept of a page, so whatever happens, happens... and if it doesn't, I keep working it until it works... the multiplate printing is certainly very experimental, and I see this final excercise as a automated 'looseness' I didn't feel at the beginning of the course... too worried about what I was trying to say about the masks and not how I enjoyed their texture and process.

I remember listening to an interview with Marcel Duchamp. He spoke about incidentalism and nothing being a mistake... he talked about his piece The Large Glass where he said during a move, the glass was cracked, and there was uproar and everybody was very affected by it. He was asked how to fix it, should they remove the glass and he try to salvage what he could from this masterpiece? His response was basically that no, leave the glass as is, it was meant to be, so it had to be part of the 'story of the piece'.... I really like that. There's something very evolutionary about that.

Marcel Duchamp, The Large Glass. Oil on Glass, 1915-23

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The book - “A collection of sheets of paper, or similar material, blank, written, or printed, bound together; commonly, many folded and bound sheets containing continuous printing or writing.“ (http://ardictionary.com/Book/6286)

The Artists Book - “An artists book is a harmonious composite of design, form, content, and context with no one area dominating or responsible for the bulk of intended message(s). The overlapping of form (materials) and content (message) is quite often the major vehicle for creative expression.”

An artists' book is an artwork in a book format, or an artwork which has its origin in the form or concept of the book. The term was originally coined to describe books which had their origin in the conceptual art movement of the 1970s. The typical artist’s book today is a limited edition handmade book. The material ranges from lyrical and poetical works, books that take on a sculptural aspect to beautiful examples which blend the creativity of the artist with the technology of today’s computer age. Artists books come in all forms, shapes and sizes, and are made out of a variety of materials including wood, handmade paper and stone.” (http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibit/online/ab/what_is_an_artists_book)

I wanted to present printed pages, using techniques I have experimented with, with a physical layered interpretation. Main areas of interest to me – print process, book installation process – in terms of construction of the book and deconstruction of the book, something that was intimate and had a valued physicality.

Today, I read everything on-line, I value the physical book, the one off book edition, one that tells a story on many levels, and encourages the reader to consider their environment as they read. The vessel of the book – the pages, the representation of the subject matter, the physicality of the book and the environment in which the book is read, was important to me.

The book installation as well as the materials and processes used were representative of the transformation ritual – the ritual of the mask.... the revealing and concealment of the mask, its ritual and the representation of who the mask transforms over time. As with the understanding of the written word as the story is revealed.

With this project, I hope to consolidate my printmaking skills developed thus far and allow room to appreciate the way different processes in print-media can be utilised to achieve different outcomes.

My process:

The Art of The book - the process, the construction and deconstruction, the revealing and concealing nature of the mask, in print.

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I'm finally seeing myself clear of the text dilemma. I came to a few conclusions about thext in art, and so, at some stage, I'd really like to explore further...

I have been researching artsts books, books with text, artists who use a form of intuitive method of 'arriving' at their works. One major influence in the text works I finished up with (towards the end) was Henri Michaux... artist, poet and philosopher... (see Research Methods in Phenomenological Aesthetics by Merle Flannery, University of Florida)

All of these artists use text in some form in their work (although Dumas and Kandinsky not as much). I was attracted to their free line, spontaneous form and in the case of Michaux, his poetry. I came to the conclusion, that writing became a part of their art, it didn't stand out as 'text', so I used this theme in my collagraphs.

When I finally starting being a lot more free with the text, and the idea of the collagraph, (like Peter Marcus and Julie Gough's work) I realised that it's about the relief, and getting the idea across. This research then influenced my ideas for the artists book.

I have continued the theme of transformation of the mask and I think this is a theme that lends itself well to the book.

Images in order:

Wassily Kandinsky
Marlene Dumas
Jean Debuffet

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My resolved choices (favourites) are:
These prints are all A3 - large - without clearly defined borders and with text revealed (barely) through the texture... I experimented with masking and cutting of rice paper (image 3), and found rubbing away parts of the rice paper easier. On the first two, I tried powders, oils and masking fluids as well as rubbing the brayer onto selected parts of the plate to achieve a variation in print.

Masks, transformation of masks and texture/text in a form of reveal and conceal was my theme, and I was fairly satisfied with the outcomes.

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Plate 11 - I reviewed plate 10 – the automated writing worked, but I was hoping to achieve a more chaotic, automated emotive text in the form of a mask, so I continued to glue aluminium foil with text onto the mask and the background.

1. and 2. on rice paper
3. - 5. heavyweight cartridge paper A3.

So, at the end of the excercise, I realised that I enjoyed the concealed text, rather than readable text - I enjoyed the process of experimenting with hints of words, ideas, and found that text may not be readable – it just needs to communicate an idea.

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Plate 10 – I reviewed plate 9 – the automated writing worked, but I was hoping to achieve a more automated emotive text in the form of a mask, so I continued to glue aluminium foil with text onto the mask and the background.

1. print on brown paper
2. - 5. print on heavy weight non textured watercolour paper A3

I call Plates 10 and 11 'transformed plates'

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REVIEW
During week three of my process, I reviewed my plates and found I was happy with the outcome of only one of my ideas. I had intended to incorporate into one plate the forms of text and texture, but found that the ideas were 'there', but the text was either too obvious for the idea of 'conceal and reveal', or there was little representation of the transformation of the mask.

My intention always was to communicate these ideas, and with the quality of the prints being more experimental, I decided to take elements of all of the experiments and put them into one plate that suggested the process was important as an intuitive, suggestive, concealing form. Ultimately, I found that the final collagraphs were more useful to represent the idea and carried on making more collagraphs based on the idea of the third.

I went back to Mira Schors work and the final collagraph I had made to see how I could continue to represent the mask as I had with the monoprints and woodcuts I had done in previous excercises.

My resolved multi-plate pieces:

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Plate 9 - so this is when things started getting interesting...
I started reviewing the idea of 'automated scribble' to make a shape, and although thought came into the actual process, I still hoped to achieve a 'textured' written sort of idea. My inspiration for this was Mira Schor, but I wanted to remove the obviousness of writing. The text is from a poem by Scott Mcloud – Understanding Comics

Words written into aluminium and rubbings taken in aluminium, which was then glued to a plate and painted over with gesso.

I experimented with

printing on rice paper, with a light 'masking' around the figure/form to print in main area...
printing on rice paper with loaded ink on collagraph
printing on A3 watercolour paper
Overloaded ink on thin surface of collagraph printed on A3 cartidge paper
printing on rice paper, with a light 'masking' around the figure/form to print in main area...

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Plate 8
The word “POSSESS' made from rope and taped with electrical tape into PVA glue/gesso mix on rough corrugated torn cardboard surface, again trying:

printing on dry brown paper with loaded brayer
printed on dry rice paper with less ink
second/ghost print on dampened rice paper
printing on dampened rice paper with loaded ink
printing on brown paper

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Plate 6 - The word “POSSESS' was cut into corrugated coardbard glued over an acrylic hessian sacking fabric.

Possibly obvious and mechanical a text, but I intend to multiplate print here, which is the printing of two plates over eachother.

Plate 7
The word “POSSESS' scratched into PVA glue/gesso mix – I had tried just glue and just pva before hand without getting enough relief, so I decided to combine the two.

I experimented with:

printing on dry brown paper with loaded brayer
printing on dry brown paper with less ink
ghost print on rice paper
printing on dampened rice paper with loaded ink
second/ghost print on dampened rice paper

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Plate 5
The word “POSSESS' was cut into corrugated card board and parts were torn away from the board in order to create an 'edgy' feel – textures other than the corrugated cardboard, from sacking, wettened leaves, speckled areas from glitter and couscous.

The idea is to capture the decay of textures...

I tried printing onto:

tracing paper
rice paper
heavy damp paper
medium weight paper - cartridge

The letters are completely concealed, which I was fine about - basically, I'd create a multiprint with textures and text at a later stage...