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Make graceful and lasting change

BAO5 – Book Art Object Preparation


Cindy Tonkin - September 29, 2019

I’m participating in an invitation only Book Art Object exhibition which will show in Coffs Harbour later this year. Follow the link to find out what it’s all about  – essentially for me as an art maker it means I need to not only create a work in response to a text (easy), I need to replicate it 8 times (much harder for me). 

My process is usually to let the materials dictate to me how they end up, there’s no pressure to get to a certain endpoint. When I replicate, which I often do because one piece asks to be re done slightly differently, it’s never with an intention of copying the original. So this is doubly hard for me. I usually end up with editions variees rather than multiple editions of the same book.

I originally planned to do this piece again. But it required a laser cutter, and I have not had the energy to get that organised (I’ve been sitting on this since January). I tried to do a smaller version here, but found it not good enough

So I have adjusted my sights and am opting for a different form. It’s called a Jacob’s Ladder in the book Trash Origami, but i think of it as the thing we did to make crepe paper streamers when we were young. The internet and pinterest seem to call it box folded streamers

The beauty of the form is that it can be manipulated to be a variety of different objects, as you can see here

This piece is of the same form, but I put more “books” inside the pockets of the streamers. and that’s what I’m replicating. 

I chose colours to correspond with the sunrise, because the poems and photos the poet sent were dawn on the beach. I’m now in mid creation, and have found other configurations, so who knows how it will all end up. I’m also using up a heap of A4 paper in glorious colours which Meaghan gave me from her mum’s collection. i am buying fewer and fewer art supplies the longer I make work: people give me things (i am still puzzled about what I’ll do with the 4 decades of national geographics i have in the attic!), and most recently some great quality papers.

The laser printed pastel paper has these words “they have no wish to intervene in human affairs”. The decoration in the background is a collage i did a few months ago which features waves and a window.

The folds, simple as they are, are irritating my wrists a little. I’ve just purchased a Cricut Maker to reduce the toll on my wrists because I just have to fold, not cut. let’s see, I may go back to the original idea, now I have something to cut it with!

See the final work here.

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