Wednesday 4 July 2007

Damp Flat Books feature in lecture.

ARLIS/UK and Ireland Annual Conference‘Useful and; Beautiful? Supporting the Arts and Crafts in the 21st Century’
Park Campus, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, Wednesday 4th July – Friday 6th July 2007. Damp Flat Books are featured in, Page on Page – an overview of Contemporary British and Irish Artists’ Books, a talk given by Sarah Bodman.

Sunday 1 July 2007

New Book - Mortal Coil



11” (28cm) width x 4” (10.5cm) height x ½” (1cm) thickness – approx.



Unfolded each page is 15” long (39cm)
Heavy grey millboard covers.
Wire binding in dark green.
Nine pages, eight of which fold-out, printed on 130gsm cartridge paper
Trace fly-leaf, title of book on embossed vertical belly-band, numbered and signed in an edition of ten, made in Brighton, United Kingdom 2007

Much of my previous work has centred around themes of advertising and anxiety, recently I have been experimenting with photo collage and hand drawn typography. I usually write my own texts, but your exhibition requirements were really interesting - affording me the opportunity to explore some new literature. In response to a forthcoming exhibition in Kentucky I started to explore the visual possibilities of the poems of Robert Penn Warren. I’ve based my book Mortal Coil on the poem, Mortal Limit by Robert Penn Warren.

The text of the poem is split into 7 sections, hand drawn typographically to emphasise key words. The typography sits above photo collages (taken in the South of England) exploring the melancholy of the landscape as it metamorphoses from undeveloped ruralscapes into urban jungles. Themes of urban decay and environmental issues are very much in focus in Britain at the moment, and it was fascinating in the poem to have aspirational descriptions of the landscape tinged with the failings of the human spirit. The book is designed to have folding pages that when opened-up reveal darker elements from the previous page. The symbol of the hawk is a reminder of the source of the text,
a favourite motif of the poet.
My book both begins and ends with the image of the hawk (a familiar icon within Penn Warren's work). The colours in the book change from greens through to blacks and reds as the threat to the landscape is realised. The book is created using a combination of photoshop, digital photography, hand drawn typography, quarkxpress and illustrator.

The title Mortal Coil derives from an archaic English expression (still in use) meaning the ‘troubles of the world’ – popularised by Shakespeare in Hamlet.


This book was created for the exhibition:



Visions and Voices: Art Inspired by Kentucky Poetry, Prose and Songwriting
7th July - 6th October 2007
Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft
Louisville. KY 40202
USA

Wednesday 27 June 2007

V&A Museum Interview Damp Flat Books

The V&A website had just been updated and now you can read interviews with me and 5 other bookartists. You can view the majority of my books in the V&A Museum collection.

see their website for information about accessing their fantastic collection:http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/a/artists-books/


To read the interview with Damp Flat Books follow this link:http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/artists-books-interviews/



Saturday 2 June 2007

Zineopolis Founded!

I've just set up a new Zine Collection at the University of Portsmouth, through the Illustration Course. The collection is called ZINEOPOLIS, and it links to student projects making zines and comics. Have a look at our new website, it will build-up over time, but this is the first peek...
www.zineopolis.co.uk

Zineopolis opened in June 2007 after a group zine project from first year Illustration Degree students at the University of Portsmouth. The zines and comics produced are archived in this site along with zines donated to us and ones specially purchased for the collection. Over the years we hope to build-up a representative collection of zines - we are focussing on zines heavy with visual content.

We wanted to reflect the diversity of thought and talent that exists outside traditional publishing. Zines are one of the few areas left where creative people can speak without censorship. This make the world of zines new and exciting as well as challenging. Commercial art is changing rapidly, with over reliance on clip-art images and images that exist to simply
dress-up yet another advert, for yet another 'must-have' product. So, what do visual people make and say when they are given a free-hand?
You'll find it here - amongst zines.
The nature of production, often cheap and quick, means these zines reflect the thoughts and hopes of the day (quite literally). We are focussing upon image-heavy zines, here in the School of Art and Design. The emergence of zines means that contrary to popular thought, young people (and older ones) have plenty to say about the world they find themselves in, and not as passively as one may expect. The culture of zines shows us that people do still have opinions, it also shows us that traditional conduits for sharing thoughts are probably not as accessible as we'd like within our celebrity obsessed media. It's great to witness the self-publishing boom!


Go on! Make a zine 
draw what's on your mind, then send us a copy...
 
Zineopolis
School of Art, Design & Media

Eldon Building (third floor) 
University of Portsmouth
Winston Churchill Avenue
Portsmouth
Hampshire PO1 2DJ


Thursday 1 March 2007

New Book - Damp In Ditchwater

Postcard souvenir booklet. First edition of twenty - Brighton UK
Heavy yellow card cover with shaped edge, printed in either, dark-orange or pale-turquoise.
Introduction page followed by 10 detachable heavyweight colour postcards with tissue interleaves. One card contains a tipped-in stamp and handwritten salute.

"A charming history - told through postcards - of the philanthropic, family-run Damp Industries’
partnership with the sleepy town of Ditchwater-by-Sea. Damp Industries’ self-appointed mission, is to strive until culture, learning and suitable products reside in the South."

In this sequence of ten postcards the intriguing relationship between Damp
and Ditchwater-by-Sea is slowly revealed.


  • What happened on the opening day at the Damp Museum? 
  • Who wears the Cod-Sash? 
  • Why is the curator missing? 


This book has grown out my fascination for less-than-exciting museums. I particularly enjoy the secondhand mannequins with scuffed noses and displays that have been gathering dust for years. I make a point of searching out the least-popular tourist attractions, in the hope of finding a display of manky plastic fruit or - my favourite - a historical family diorama. The trend in swish, technologically interactive museums are fine for children, but the creepy dank interiors of the deserted local museum are my delight. I have been recording these museum interiors for a number of years in the hope of celebrating these fast-disappearing gems. The second-rate displays often reveal an 'any old rubbish for the tourists' attitude that is sharper than any deliberate satire.

The narrative behind
Damp in Ditchwater is the story of an unscruplous company that, hounded out of its own country, has started over again in England. The clash of values, along with the townsfolk's desperation to 'be put on the map' reveals itself through the comments on the reverse of the postcards. Starting slight but getting more and more vocal until there is little room to actually write a message on the postcard. The Damp employees and Ditchwater townsfolk have an uneasy alliance, where both are grittedly out-for-themselves.


To see this book in more detail visit:




Exhibitions:


The Southern Cross University Acquisitive Artsits’ Book Award is coordinated by the SCU nextart Gallery, 89 Magellan Street, Lismore, NSW, Australia.
Now in it’s 5th year this annual award provides Southern Cross University with an opportunity to continue to develop an artists’ book collection of national significance and in so doing also contribute to the development and awareness of artists’ books as an art form.
Exhibition opening & announcement of acquisitions August 11 - exhibition continues to September 22.
Damp in Ditchwater has been selected for this exhibition.


Place, Identity and Memory – books made by artists
Opens 23 May to 28 June 2009, Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries, Scotland.
Then the exhibition tours libraries and other venues across Dumfries and Galloway, ending at Stranraer Museum, 55 George Street, Stranraer, DG9 7JP, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland between the 26th September – 31st October 2009, to coincide with the annual Literary Festival at nearby Wigtown, Scotland’s Book Town. This is a travelling exhibition by IRIS. The aim of IRIS is to develop Dumfries and Galloway as a recognised centre for book arts in Scotland and internationally.
Headroom
 and Damp in Ditchwater both feature in the exhibition and catalogue.

Scheduled to appear in the November-December issue of the Book Arts Newsletter No.31, UWE, Bristol, UK 


Babylon Lexicon - New Orleans, 14-30 Nov. 2008
Damp in Ditchwater
 and Headroom will be on show at the New Orleans Bookfair - Babylon Lexicon. - Future Fantasteek! Issue No.5 will also be exhibited, at the same time, during the New Orleans Zine Fair.


Re: 2008 The Gallery, The University of Northampton, Monday 12th – Thursday 29th May 2008
New book - Reboot has just been completed and accepted for the exhibition Re: 2008, Damp in Ditchwater joins the exhibition as part of The Ministry of Books Show.
Venues:
....The Gallery, The University of Northampton, Avenue Campus, St. George's Avenue, Northampton, NN2 6JD, UK.
....Artworks MK, Milton Keynes, UK from 14th July–14th August;
....Herefordshire College of Art – Summer 2008;
....The Space Gallery, University of Portsmouth from 3rd-14th November 2008.

....
Quay Arts, Newport, Isle of Wight, UK

Collections:

  • The Modern British Collections, The British Library, London, UK
  • Center for Fine Print Research, UWE Bristol, UK
  • Hyman Kretiman Research Library at Tate Britain, Millbank, London, UK
  • The Old School Press, Hinton Charterhouse, Bath, UK
  • The Culture Archive, Brighton, UK
  • The Ministry of Books, Portsmouth, UK

Thursday 1 February 2007

Future Fantasteek! Issue No.2

ISSUE TWO : FEBRUARY 2007
...Comfort & Security Issue
Softback Zine printed in greyscale on fluorescent pink paper, staple bound.
A5 size containing 16 printed pages. Pearl grey/pink cover with 2 glitter shapes.
Issue two: Brighton 2007, edition size of fifty.

The second outing for the Damp Research Laboratory - once the staff were hastily re-hired.
Marvel at the Negativity Negator; find out why "NO" is better than "yes".
Ever wondered why everything is always out of order? Let the Entropy-Go-Round inform you.
How useful is Vitamin O? And another incite Masked-Cat truism for your delectation..

To view this zine in more detail follow this link:

...Meanwhile, Future Fantasteek!, Issue One, has just joined 3 new collections, 
  • The Mansfield Library - Zine Collection, at the University of Montana-Missoula, USA, 
  • the Papercut Zine Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 
  • The zine collection at the University of Austin, Texas, USA.


Arcadia id Est - Exhibition is now touring during 2007:

Arcadia id Est is on touring in 2007:
Feb 1st - Feb 22nd 2007: 

John M Flaxman Library, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL, USA 

9th March - 13th May 2007

Washington University Libraries, St. Louis, USA

1 June - 31 July 2007

Rhode Island School of Art and Design, Providence, USA

20 August - 2 October 2007

Noosa Regional Gallery, Australia

Menthol Daze is being shown as part of Arcadia Id Est - A travelling exhibition organised by the Centre for Fine Print Research, The University of the West of England.






The booklet is 107mm X 150mm. The inside page once opened is 297mm x 420mm (A3)


The cover is printed on white card, the inside page is black and white on 130g cartridge paper. There is space for 14 collectors' cards. Each edition has 9 cards pasted in. The collectors' cards are printed in colour on glossy paper. Menthol Daze is produced in editions of 7, it is now on its third edition. 

Menthol Daze is a fold-out page containing spaces for collected cigarette cards. The booklet is produced under my own invented brand Elysian's Cigarettes
The images are manipulated collages from Salem cigarette advertisements and images from the Sierra Club publications from the 'fifties. The cards are numbered and when pasted into the booklet, text accompanies each picture. The images are intended to represent the clichéd images of delightful countryside, so often used in selling products - by attempting to make them appear natural. The text that accompanies each image however details reasons to be uncertain of the countryside. Threats in the natural environment range from nuclear testing contamination, dangerous infections carried in rivers and annual lawn mower injuries, to the link between temperature change and heart attacks. The intention of Menthol Daze was to juxtapose threat and relaxation found in the Great Outdoors in order to satirize the inflated claims made for nature in advertisements - cereals, shampoo, cars, sweets and snacks, insurance and mobile phones.

This booklet was originally created as part of my PhD submission, for the University of Brighton.



Wednesday 31 January 2007

Sitting Room - Exhibition

Sitting Room Exhibition has continued on to the Permanent Bookshop, Brighton.
Anxious Homes from Damp Flat Books is part of the group show.
The Private View will be on 31st January and the show will run until 18th February 2007


Thursday 25 January 2007

Poetry Books: Reading Books - Exhibition

Poetry Books: Reading Books - 25 January 2007 - 24 March 2007
Exhibition will be at the Broekhuis Bookshop, Enschede, The Netherlands.
Notebook 57 from Damp Flat Books is in the exhibition.





...For more about the show visit the link below:
http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/bruik07.htm


Tuesday 5 December 2006

Montage Over Britain - Exhibition

Montage Over Britain : David Ferry plus Artists’ Books from the CFPR Collection
Saturday 9 December 2006 - Sunday 14 January 2007
Permanent Gallery and Bookshop, Brighton.


We're Sorry_ from Damp Flat Books will be in the exhibition.
Accompanying the show will be a unique collection of 45 contemporary books by artists, available for visitors to view. This collection has been especially selected for 
The Permanent Bookshop by Sarah Bodman, and includes the work of Jake Tilson, Yoko Ono, Sophie Calle and David Shrigley.


For more about the exhibition:
http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/montag06.htm


For links to The Permanent Bookshop:
http://www.permanentgallery.com/





Monday 4 December 2006

Sitting Room - Exhibition

Sitting Room has continued on to the Alsager Arts Centre, 4th December 2006 – 26th January 2007. MMU Cheshire, Alsager Campus, Hassall Road, Alsager, ST7 2HL
www.alsagerartscentre.org.uk

The setting is a carefully re-created Sitting Room complete with comfortable armchairs, standard lamp, wallpaper, coffee table and gramophone, inviting visitors to peruse the unique display of artist’s books. Within this familiar domestic scene, emphasis is placed upon the engagement between the book and the reader. Visitors are encouraged to choose an artist’s book from the bookcase, make themselves at home in the sitting room and enjoy this rare opportunity to handle and interact with the limited edition artists-made book works. Curators Tom Sowden and Lucy May Schofield, part of the 
Righton Press Group, based at Manchester Metropolitan University, conceived the idea for the show through a frustration of exhibiting their own books within the confines of glass cabinets. 


Anxious Homes
 from Damp Flat Books is on show.
 








Saturday 2 December 2006

KART Magazine of Multiplicity - Guest Artist

KART Magazine of Multiplicity - Australia
This is an ongoing project - A specially produced mini-excerpt from Future Fantasteek! (edition 40) will be participating in KART during Dec. 2006. The KART (Field Study) is curated by David Dellafiora at Karingal Community Living. PO BOX 1838 Greelong, VIC 3220, Australia.
Email: fluxusstudy@hotmail.com
Issues of KART comprise of 15 various limited edition artworks in a portfolio-box. Some issues will be sold to institutions, libraries and archives. Karingal is a non-for-profit organisation and provides activities and services for people with a disability or who are experiencing disadvantage.


This edition of KART will be sent to: 
The State Library of Victoria, Australia, Sackners Visual Poetry Archived, U.S.A
University of Buffalo, U.S.A and Sticky - Artist's Bookshop/Zineshop in Melbourne, Australia.



Saturday 28 October 2006

New Orleans Bookfair - Exhibition

Damp Flat Books will be appearing at the New Orleans Bookfair - Babylon Lexicon - Hurrah!
Selected books and my catalogue will be on display in this showcase of artists' books and book-related art.
The 
New Orleans Bookfair opens Oct 28th, 2006, from 10am - 6pm, Barrister's Gallery, 1724 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., New Orleans, LA, U.S.A



The exhibition runs through to the end of November 2006.
Link to the bookfair here...



Notebook 57 and Future Fantasteek! were at the show and now reside in the Hot Iron Press's permanent Artist's Book Collection.

Friday 27 October 2006

Bookart Bookshop - Stocking Damp Flat Books

Bookart Bookshop in London are now supplying my books. 17 Pitfield st, London N1 6HB
Opening hours: 1-7pm Wednesday to Friday, 1-6pm Saturday. Email: info@bookartbookshop.com
We're Sorry_ was 'book of the month' during february this year.



http://www.bookartbookshop.com/




Saturday 1 July 2006

Future Fantasteek! Issue No.1

ISSUE ONE : JULY 2006

...Things You Need Issue
Softback Zine printed in greyscale on flourescent lime paper, staple bound.
A5 size containing 16 printed pages, with a flexible clear-multilens pvc cover.
Issue one: Brighton 2006, edition size of fifty.

This Zine is full of eveything that’s wrong with modern living, modern people and going to work. It’s a mixture of hand-drawn typographic slogans and advice with curious advertisements thrown in for good measure. Buy an Evil-Pet or a machine for generating Stupid Ideas. The Damp Flat Research Facilities have wasted no time in bringing you the most up to date advice along with plausible excuses that can be profered for any event.
Things you need and things you don’t - if you can’t tell ‘em apart... YOU NEED THIS ZINE



Future Fantasteek Issue 1 can be viewed here:

Or you can flick through it on issuu.com


Saturday 20 May 2006

Sitting Room - Exhibition

Anxious Homes is visiting the Manchester Craft and Design Centre in an exhibition called, Sitting Room. From 20th May - 15th July 2006. This is a touring show.

"This will be a handling show of artists' books held in environments that have been created to allow the books to be freely read. The exhibition areas of each venue will become a sitting room, complete with soft armchairs, standard lamp, coffee table and wallpaper. Re-creating a non-descript domestic scene. On the wall will be bookcases or bookshelves all stocked with artists' books that the viewers are free to access and peruse within the comfortable surroundings that have been supplied."






Saturday 1 April 2006

Arcadia id Est - Exhibition is now touring during 2006

Menthol Daze is moving again as part of, Arcadia Id Est - artists’ books, nature and the landscape: Touring Exhibition 2005-2007. 


Netherlands. 1st April – 15th June 2006
Library AKI, Hallenweg 5, 7500 BK
Enschede, The Netherlands. 



Then July 2006 - August 2006 
Rikhardinkatu Library, Helsinki





Monday 6 March 2006

Bookmarks III - Exhibition

Book-O-Meter my edition of 100 bookmarks, now moves to the USABookmarks i, ii and iii Exhibition
Stewart Center Gallery, Purdue University, USA from 6th March – 23rd April, 2006


"This exhibition features fine-art prints in the form of bookmarks and artists’ books. “Bookmarks” is a multi-part project from 
The Centre for Fine Print Research at The University of the West of England, to encourage people to appreciate artwork in the book format and to visit artist’s book venues and libraries. The projects involve artists who work in the format of the artist’s book, each of whom generously produces an edition of 100 bookmarks for free distribution to the public. The display sets have already been installed in over 32 venues, with more than 90 contributing artists producing over 9,000 bookmarks since May 2004."



Sunday 25 December 2005

Summary of 2005

2005 has been a good year for Damp Flat Books. The 2004 catalogue did really well keeping me very busy this year. The main change is that I’ve completed my new website, showcasing all my current books & multiples. It also houses sketchbook work, artist statements, exhibitions and links to new projects I’m starting.



Menthol Daze is being exhibited as part of Arcadia Id Est - A travelling exhibition organised by the Centre for Fine Print Research, The University of the West of England. The show runs from March 2005 to December 2006 and is travelling around the world from Australia to the UK - it’s in Australia about now.

I also exhibited 3 bookworks in the 2nd Seoul International Bookarts Fair in Korea 3rd-8th June 2005, where Running a Secret Society No.20 won a Medal.

As part of my research for the University of Portsmouth I received funding to create a new artist’s book alongside a student project exchange. The project consisted of a short trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in association with the Universiti Teknologi MARA and The Alif Creative Academy where I acted as external examiner, but also worked on a new book called My Favourtie Souvenir. This unusual hardback 3-folding-book written in Malay and English will be exhibited in Canada in Dec 2005 - Jan 2006 and Malaysia during winter 2006.


I have also created two more new books this year:

We’re Sorry - a celebration of broken machinery and clapped-out computers all suripticiously captured on camera phone and bought together in a small double-bound blue book, sealed with hazard tape.
 
Evil Eyes - a strange set of photographic faces seen in everyday objects, such as staplers and vending machines. Horizontally-opening cloth bound hardback book.


During the updating of the website I decide to open my own online museum. 
The Damp Museum can now be visited at www.dampflat.com and the curator contacted,
but I’m not sure what he’s up to ...