A full day at Camberwell on
the MA Book Arts – discussing work within a day long crit is always exciting
with many starting points and directions discussed was a way of moving the work
along for the students flowing back into one’s head which is always very full
at the end of the day. We covered lots of ideas – the sound of sadness, books of
space to travel within space, the language of stitch, book as tool, hidden narratives
within the everyday, emotional colours and Wabi Sabi to name a few. The year is
slowly moving mercilessly towards the final show (time does that). After that I
managed a visit to Tate Modern to catch up with Marlene Dumas http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/marlene-dumas-image-burden
and Sonia Delaunay http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/ey-exhibition-sonia-delaunay
The Dumas was all deeply sad tonal pools of misery – quite marvellous – her handling
of the paint is tragically controlled within the illusion of freedom. I was moved by the quotes on the wall in the galleries - used as an introduction or contextualisation
– especially the room with the paintings of her daughter and the room of ‘war’
images – “the first mark is the worst, the drawing of a line cuts the paper in
two, the drawing of maps and borders turn neighbours into foreigners. This really
defines the tone of the show. With the Delaunay the work seemed right for ‘applied
arts’ I was taken in by the book cover designs and especially the textile work.
The strikingly modern designs within the work books, samples of printed cloth and
the oddly mannered posed film showing several garments were the highlights for
me.
