ELSEWHERE

Back of the Spoon Press and cats' tails

(Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Concealment in Calais sought (I), 2014, hand-coloured postcard collage, with a Leopard (Panthera pardus))




(Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Concealment in Calais sought (III), 2014, hand-coloured postcard collage, with a Golden Cat (Felis aurata))

100 Cats closes this Friday evening, so you'd best be quick if you were hoping to make it along to meet and greet the many wonderful felines in this group show of fifty-odd artists at Off the Kerb gallery in Collingwood.

And now, work continues in the studio on something new. With ink, roller, paper mask, and the back of a spoon, I am printing a Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulates) and a Plum-headed Finch (Neochmia modesta). Carved into small pieces of lemonwood, they will later be given collaged bodies by Gracia for our part of the Brimblebox 153 Birds project. But it will be a little while before I can share the results with you.

In the meantime, links to peruse:
Four cats sauntered into a gallery, and one cat said to the others, [Insert Joke Here].
Gracia's The Nutcracker Sweet, a twenty-four page (utterly adorable) artists' book she made at seven-years-of-age with mice and the Sugar Plum Fairy
What is Beauty? (on vimeo), our moving pieces collage especially for The Australian Ballet of all things beautiful in anticipation of their 2015 season

And finally, don't forget, our super month of free postage is still on. We are offering FREE POSTAGE ALL SEPTEMBER LONG on all orders through our online store. Simply enter the code 'Zarafa' upon checkout.

On foot

Gracia and I are beyond thrilled to have one of our collaborative collages in the October issue of The World of Interiors. Commissioned during the film festival in August, we scanned all manner of maps, books, and fragments from both the State Library of Victoria's collection and our own to create this piece to illustrate the Jounal of a Literary Tour Guide.

A little taste:

I organise literary tours. Some are large scale, such as the public 'Pre-Raphaelite Pilgrimage' I ran for the National Trust between The George Inn in Southwark and William Morris's Red House in Bexleyheath, for which musicians, artists and storytellers were dotted along the route in hidden gardens; and some are smaller, like a recent trip with four friends, retracing John Clare's footsteps from his asylum in Epping Forest to his cottage in Northborough. Clare walked the route in an impressive four days, and ate grass; we allowed ourselves a little more leeway. Often the number is about 20, which is what we’ll be in October this year, when we stay in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s house in Keswick and explore the scenery that inspired the Lake Poets. Literature is best approached on foot; it’s fitting that we measure poetry in metre, feet and lines. The natural cadence of walking mirrors the rhythms of reading and writing, and brings the words to life.

As the tour guide, I get the double pleasure of devising the route and then enjoying the walk.

(Henry Eliot is a literary walker.  He co-edits Curiocity, a map-magazine of unusual experiences in London, and is currently editing a documentary about mazes and labyrinths. He is writing a novel about the Medieval Earthly Paradise.)

Gracia has previously created three collages for The World of Interiors: Time on His Hands, 2012; The Genuine Article, 2009; and Greeks Bearing Gifts, 2008. They, too, oddly enough, have been commissioned during the film festival. Must be something in the air.

Within an Indian miniature painting

(The Bayadères at the Adelphi, printed playbill, Adelphi Theatre London, England, October 1838 (Image source: V&A))

G's spice-infused and fantastical piece on The Australian Ballet's production of La Bayadère for Fjord Review, Shades of Mysticism and Opulence, has recently been published. Here is a little appetiser:

Stanton Welch's new production of La Bayadère, a glittering tale of betrayal and unrequited love, is akin to finding one’s self within an Indian miniature painting. Swirling shades of burnt coral, gold, dusty pink, turquoise, and an olive green tinged with yellow guide us down the Orientalist path to Mythic India in a romanticised period. The magician's optical illusion in play, nature is contrived by hand and presented as an ordered frame to a stage. The trompe l'oeil effect in motion to both trick the eye and delight sees a Rajah's palace appear before the eyes. And just as an Indian miniature seeks to emphasize mood (or bhava) through rich lyricism, when coupled with the melodies of Minkus in response to the exotic theme, La Bayadère brings to life a daydream of the past through an explosion of dance.

To understand the landscape one needs to remember that La Bayadère, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa for the Russian Imperial Ballet, was first performed in 1877. As Welch explains of the ballet, "during this time, the Middle East in particular and all of Asia was really this mysterious, fantastic place for the West. You have to view it as a Russian concept of that place, it's not in any way meant to be authentic to the country, it’s authentic to a Russian's version or dream of what that country may be."[i] But in order to attain secure footing in this fantasy-scape of Bengal tigers, spice-hued costumes, and slippers that curl upward at the toe, one needs to surrender to the brilliant spectacle as it unfolds, teases, sparks, and entrances. It is impossible not to be a little awe-struck when the house lights come on. It is, in fact, a little like smoking opium with Solor, our warrior lead, at the behest of the fakir, Kalum.

The chance to be transported to a place where Gods' leap, snakes slither, and saris swirl even in the ballet world does not come often enough.... (continue reading)

Additional links to peruse:
George Paton Gallery: Artist's Books (reprised) exhibition on wotwedid
100 Cats opening at Off the Kerb
Dream Worlds and $10,000 Tutus on Broadsheet
World Ballet Day, 1st of October, 2014
Militant Surrealism: Jan Švankmajer Shorts Part II as part of the Czech and Slovak Film Festival
Support Materiality's Pozible campaign

And don't forget, we're offering FREE POSTAGE ON ALL ORDERS placed through our ONLINE STORE ALL SEPTEMBER LONG. Enter in the magic code word, 'Zarafa', upon checkout. Lenni is ready to help with the wrapping.

And finally head across to our instagram account to see a little of our collaged response to beauty in light of The Australian Ballet's 2015 season. For us, beauty can be found in nature, untamed or otherwise, but more on this later.

000 brush

(A small hyperlapse video from earlier today. Leafing through a copy of our winged Twelve months, an explorer tales at George Paton Gallery: Artist's Books (reprised), University of Melbourne.)

When I am not with a 00 or 000 brush in my hand, painting the stripes and numbers on a handful of pewter footballers for a collectables store, I am...


(In a opium haze, recalling the hypnotic procession of the Shades. (Looking forward to revisiting La Bayadère later in the week with my Mum.))


(Admiring Lenni, atop the fridge, by the light of the golden tortoise, as he waits for his fifth breakfast. (Feline Fanciers, please note the endearing chest swirl.))


(Giving in to the temptation of a new pair of Moomin scissors at Odette.)


(And admiring the marvellous yellow.)