/blankpage
/blankpage, the
carefully
nurtured collaborative book project by
17 Creative-Freelance members (plus an honorary 18th: our book-binder,
Dan
Wray) has produced an art object in its wonderful physical
form.
The book was launched at a Private View on Friday 25 June, 2004 in The
China
Room, Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich, UK, on show to the public there
until
18 July. The Web version of /blankpage was launched at the same time.
(Borin Van Loon is Chair of Freelance and a
contributor to the
art-object
and exhibition.)
Click here for the link to the
creative-freelance
website for a browse through the whole book.
-
<<I wanted to use our art-object book to
explore the nature of
the book (still the best form of software!), uses of language and
fonts.
All in a single page. The unifying Ampersand relates to a project
nearly
thirty years ago. The language comes from the yellow press. The noise
is
unbearable.>>
The above statement by
Borin Van Loon
headed his exhibition screen of supporting material in the /blankpage
exhibition. The Ampersand-decorated page contained four smaller books
with hand marbled end-papers by Victoria Hall (one-time Freelance
member
of
Norwich); this sheet decorated Borin's studio wall for many years. The
image of hands
and
candles revealed by the removal of the books came from another long
standing studio wall poster: a still from a film by the master Czech
surrealist animator and director, Jan Svankmajer.
Each of the nested books contains different comments on the nature of
text, language, the possibilites of 'the book' and another, smaller
book.
1. & 2. Words taken
at random from the yellow Sunday press in
the UK were arbitrarily divided into 'Negative' and 'Positive' books to
reflect our culture's use of language in reportage.
3. The third book contained two
silicon chip noise generators from
greetings cards ('Daddy Cool' and the 'Star Wars' theme) which played
raucously silultaneously when the book was opened (sadly, having worked
almost uncontrollably when the page was made and shown around, this
noisome book ceased to function while it was away at the binders).
4. The last book (shown opened:
above left) was the last thing to be completed
in the whole exhibition and contains yet another tiny book with the
contents of the whole of
/blankpage on its pages.
Some of the supporting material displayed at /blankpage.
Below left: Ampersand artwork, large-scale spray painting and 3-D
model
made as part of a project in 1978.
Below right: the original rough for my thick page and four nested
books.
-
Musings on the nature of the book:
Below left: lifted from Marshall McLuhan; below right: Self-promo
sticker (black on gold) from 1979 ...
-
... which led to ...
Tortured Book Sculptures prepared to support
the
/blankpage exhibition
Stabbed book. A dagger through the heart of
a blood-stained
book
showing a woman from the 1930s filing her nails and a cut-away
illustration
of an abdomen.
This image has since turned up to illustrate Melissa's blog (12 March
2010) on 'Eleventh Stack' by the library workers of the Carnegie
Library of Pittburgh.
Burnt book. A biography of Rommel displaying
Nazi insignia
on
the cover
was cut with a saw and carved with a knife then stained and painted to
resemble
charred paper.
Stretched book. Made in a similar style to
my little nested
books
in /blankpage,
this elongated book entitled 'On The Rack' hung from the upper,
old-fashioned
bulldog clip.
Coda.
/blankpage
was presented by Freelance to Suffolk Record Office in Gatacre
Road, Ipswich on Friday March 4th, 2005. This unique book, beautifully
bound, contains pages of wax, glass and knitting. Paintings and digital
art sit alongside illustrations, photography, collage and miniature
books. A CD-ROM of images, plus the history of the project and
interactive Visitors' Book from the exhibition are now included with
/blankpage in a presentation case for the permanent collection at
Suffolk Record Office and will be available for public inspection.
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©2004 Copyright throughout this site belongs to Borin Van Loon