A fortunate leap, 2011
postcard collage
Gracia Haby
The volcano rabbit was suitably wary of place names, 2011
postcard collage
Gracia Haby
The very lovely and, I must say, impressively professional, Marieke, invited Gracia and me to exhibit our work as part of SOLV art (an invitation most thrilling!). I hope you enjoy our virtual exhibition as much as Gracia and I enjoyed working on it.
Our boat was the lightest feather
15th July, 2011 – 1st January, 2012
The animal features in our work made together in collaboration and otherwise. It is prominent in its feature and easily detectable, the centre of our paper stage. Hard to miss, over here and over there, the animal runs up hills, scales rooftops, and passes through a scene new or more familiar. It is present, always. For us, the animal is there to question our very behaviour, those moral principles one governs the self by, and to explore the relationship with the natural world.
The animal is our protagonist. It is the main character. Gliding through a scene it is too large to be contained within or perhaps too manmade to call home, that it has a tail or feathers or furred muzzle is not solely why its form appears. It is what the animal, our principal on aforementioned paper stage lit by moon or sun above, is doing that is where our interest lays. It is the physical act they are caught in, that is our focus. It is that they do not always fit in with their surrounds, even though sometimes, sometimes they are hard to see. It is what we relate to, in part, the act of looking for shelter or safe lodgings, running home or travelling far. It could be you. You, shown this time with a tail, but still very much you. They illustrate our traits, and our longings, those things common to us all.
The animal also illustrates our relationship and fascination with the natural world. The birds, in Louise’s drawings in particular, are depicted on the page with space for you to determine their landscapes, nest, or habitat. They are portraits with room for you to decide the setting. Defined by our environment, by where we dwell, these birds are shown on but a faint pencil line of a branch, if that.
The drawings and collages in this exhibition, Our boat was the lightest feather, feature chiefly in the recent zines: The interloper; Looking and almost never finding; It was quite a wilderness; That in the moon did glitter.
We strive to create beautiful images, but beauty underpinned by certain sadness, a lack of fit.
(The title of this exhibition we have borrowed from a sentence in Edgar Allan Poe’s A Descent into the Maelström.)
