{111 animals all cut out and waiting.}
ten |ten|
cardinal number
equivalent to the product of five and two; one more than nine; 10 : a visual list of our ten favourite mammals. (Roman numeral: x, X)
• a group or unit of ten of our favourite mammals : ten mammals in a limited edition (of ten) artists' book by Gracia and Louise.
Lately, when asked about projects Louise and I had on the go, I was inclined to reply that January was not always the most productive working month for us, and 2016 was proving no exception to the rule. However, dusting aside the stop-start crumbs of Christmas and a New Year, I see we have something. A collaborative artists' book, half finished.
An edition of ten, the process of this artists' book has been making itself a regular fixture on our instagram feed. Untitled as yet, but in essence, a love letter to ten randomly selected (read: favourite) mammals. A visual extension of the type of list you draw up in your head of, say, your ten favourite authors, colours, sounds, foods and so forth.
The first part of this book is already complete. It features ten of Louise's lemonwood engravings, all velvety black and dense. A Polar bear, a Howler monkey, a Rufous mouse lemur, and a Greater stick-nest rat alongside a Sea otter untethered from it's kelp bedding, they are all there waiting. Waiting for their collaged companions to finally catch up. (A variation of the Sea otter and the not-so-elusive-when-on-paper Snow leopard appeared late last year in Port Jackson Press Print Gallery's Christmas exhibition.)
Two images side-by-side, one printed, the other a unique-state collage, and all housed within a handmade black Solander box. Yes, of all the artists’ books we have worked on, this one has changed its form the most. And, in this case, it has been for the better, though we’re still at the slippery otter midpoint.
I look forward to sharing more of this work with you. I look forward to the year of the (brilliant) monkey. But first, I've a suite of antelopes to glue as the squirrels dry.
{Howler monkey business on the working table.}
{Taking pleasing shape, on the working table.}
