ELSEWHERE

Fruits of the working table

March has delivered much expected excitement, commencing with our animals on the cover of both the La Trobe Journal artists' book edition and Imprint magazine, and culminating in an explosion of dance thanks to Dance Massive 2015 and Giselle (seen thrice).

Why not take yourself along to Dance Massive 2015 with these recent evocative posts by G especially for Fjord Review:
Double-Cross
The Body Politic
Shout Out Loud

Finally, these six instagram captures (from the working table), from Solander box making to printing (from both lino and lemonwood), show a little of how March in the studio has looked.

Farewells and other performances

In delicious anticipation of The Australian Ballet's Madeleine Eastoe's second last Melbourne performance, Gracia and I, by way of heartfelt thanks, collaged our bouquet. We borrowed a promotional photo by Georges Antoni with Madeleine Eastoe and Chengwu Guo for The Dream, and went all out with a riot of pink blooms.

Thank-you Madeleine!

(Madeleine Eastoe: A Special Announcement)

In other dance news, the second of Gracia's considered (and amusing too) Dance Massive 2015 pieces has recently been published on Fjord Review.

Head over to read Shout Our Loud and be swept along to Antony Hamilton and Alisdair Macindoe's Meeting, and Rebecca Jensen and Sarah Aiken's Overworld. There are silver automatons! And fancy dress costumes too!

If Chunky Move’s Depth of Field, the beginning of my Dance Massive 2015 marathon, was to show me a seasonal pattern unshaped by human hand, Meeting revealed a pattern defined by sixty-four small-scale robots whilst Overworld writhed in a chaotic pattern of YouTube fragments tethered to the four elements, earth, air, fire, and water. The tenuous link between these Dance Massive performances is solely that of my own programming: one night, two performances seen back-to-back, separated by an hour, at the North Melbourne Town Hall.

As with all festivals, cinema, dance, or otherwise, the festival patron looks for common threads in the works they’ve elected to see. Processing, reeling, and ruminating, before bouncing to the next performance: what is the best palette-cleanse? Perhaps the answer lies in making myself something of an automaton using the technologies of homeostasis. Perhaps with a stack of programmable cams at my core, stable equilibrium could be maintained. I’ll let you be the judge.

(continue reading)

Salvaged Relatives, brilliant and glossy

(Salvaged Relatives on the wall at Milly Sleeping, Carlton.)

Gracia's collaged lovelies now come as a brilliant and glossy poster featuring all sixty-three of the Salvaged Relatives from editions I, II, and III (2014–2015) in their modified Ballet Russes costumes.

You can purchase the whole dance troupe for $50 though our online store.

And speaking of dance, you can also read G's thoughtful and beautiful response to Chunky Move's new work Depth of Field, here, on Fjord Review. It is the first of many Dance Massive 2015 pieces, which I have been lucky enough to see as well. From Meeting to Catalogue and a preview of Tiny Slopes, a work in progress, it is proving a massive blast.

...

Establishing who is a performer and who is actually walking home or on a grocery dash (or crashing the party with their Jack Russell) was a chief part of the playfulness of this piece. Asked to look closely at the obvious and the less obvious, it became a game of ‘spot the performer’ that actually made everyone within frame a part of the work. The mother and toddler that rested under the tree near the corner — were they a part of the piece, like the woman in the red scarf seen purchasing a parking ticket? The joggers too — that was orchestrated, right? My imaginary cast sheet for Depth of Field includes the motorists on the freeway, more than likely oblivious to the work they were a part of. Their credit: moving tail light providers. It also includes commuters on the tram. Their credit: neck ‘crickers’. And a windblown plastic bag seen rising and settling in own reenactment of a scene from Sam Mendes’s film American Beauty (1999).

...

March has us 'Thither and Hither'

(Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, In the small courtyard, overlooked, 2015, collage for the cover of Imprint magazine)


(Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Underneath Soane's 'star-fish' ceiling, the library at No. 12 proved anything but quiet, 2015, collage for the cover of the La Trobe Journal)

Gracia and I are delighted that two of our collaborative collages are on the cover of two publications this March. It is such a thrill to see our Giant anteater on the cover of the Collaboration issue of the Print Council of Australia's Imprint magazine (Autumn 2015, Volume 50, Number 1) and to see our kangaroo and friends on the cover of the Creating and Collecting: Artists' Books in Australia issue guest edited by Des Cowley, Robert Heather, and Anna Welch, of the State Library of Victoria's the La Trobe Journal (No 95, March 2015). Yes, we are all excited about this!

In addition, in Imprint magazine you can also read about our collaborative practice in a piece by our good friend Olivia Meehan, whom we cannot thank enough.

Making these collages especially for these publications was a real thrill this past summer. Thank-you for the chance to create these collages.

And should you wish, you can purchase our recent concertina zine, Thither & Hither, which features animals exploring their surrounds from the same series of works. Launched at Sticky Institute's Festival of the Photocopier in February, this zine is now available through our online store for $3.00.

March is proving as massive as February.










(Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Thither & Hither, 2015, zine)

Melbourne Art Book Fair

We're thrilled to announce that we have been invited to participate in the NGV's Melbourne Art Book Fair coming up at the beginning of May. As one of the featured publishers/artists, alongside Printed Matter (New York), Dawn Press, The Narrows, Perimeter Books, and our good friend Theo Strasser, Gracia and I will be making a whole lot of new things especially for our stall. A couple of limited edition collaged artists' books are already in the pipeline, as well as many new zine titles. (We won't be staying at 82 of each for long!)

As always, keep an eye on our instagram feed for tiny previews of new work.

So much afoot! We can't wait!

With our Salvaged Relatives and our animals, see you there.

Melbourne is a literary city, of readers and curious minds. Celebrating Melbourne’s diverse literary heritage and love of printed matter, and international recognition as one of only eleven worldwide UNESCO Cities of Literature, the NGV presents the Melbourne Art Book Fair in 2015.

A new project of its kind in Australia, the Melbourne Art Book Fair provides a unique art, architecture and design experience for visitors to the NGV.

The 2015 Melbourne Art Book Fair will be the first of a series of annual art book events developed by the NGV. From 1-3 May 2015, the inaugural Melbourne Art Book Fair brings together emerging and established publishers, artists, writers and designers. Stallholders at the Melbourne Art Book Fair will provide visitors with access to artists’ books, catalogues and monographs, periodicals and independent publications, showcasing new types of art publishing, in the one venue at NGV International.

As well as showcasing local and national publishers, the 2015 Melbourne Art Book Fair is proud to present special international guests Printed Matter (USA), making their Australian debut, and a curated focus on Japanese publishing.

The Melbourne Art Book Fair will also feature a dynamic program of free talks, forums and performances, as well as spaces to enjoy food and drinks and music, set within a uniquely designed experience by Melbourne Architecture firm Fold Theory.