Exhibition of new cross-discipline work
Opening Friday, November 4 at Minnesota Center for Book Arts
MCBA / Jerome Book Arts Mentorship Series III
November 4, 2011 – January 29, 2011
MCBA Star Tribune Foundation Gallery
Opening reception:
Friday, November 4, 2011; 6:00-8:30pm
Free and open to the public
The Book Arts Mentorship Series introduces the book arts to emerging
artists whose primary medium is in another artistic discipline, from
writing to pottery, photography to filmmaking, composing to
choreography. These artists get intensive education on the traditional
crafts of bookmaking — including letterpress printing, hand
papermaking, hand bookbinding, alternative printmaking techniques and
more — and incorporate these new explorations into their “native”
artistic discipline to create new work. This extremely unique
cross-discipline artist mentorship program is funded through the
Jerome Foundation and facilitated by Minnesota Center for Book Arts.
This exhibition is the culmination of a year-long study of new
artistic disciplines and one-on-one work with master artist mentors.
Series III participants are: poet Meryl DePasquale; sculptor and
textile artist Caroline Keefe; photographer Ben Lansky; video artist
Amanda Lovelee; choreographer, playwright and director Rachel
Perlmeter; and photographer and printmaker Keith Taylor.
Meryl DePasquale:
“Dream of a Perfect Interface” is a letterpress chapbook with one long
poem structured around skin layers. It has a Japanese stab binding and
is printed on fabric paper. My relationship with language has been
reenergized because I’ve had the opportunity to study book arts. Words
have a tactile quality for me now, as I handle the lead type, ink, and
various papers. My poems feel like stretching, snorting creatures,
alive inside their physical attributes.
Caroline Keefe:
As a sculptor I am currently working with industrial wool felt, stone
and copper to create pieces that are evocative of landscape or the
geography of that landscape. Through these sculptures I explore the
cyclical themes of identity and topography, memory and loss. As
rivers, wind or glaciers lay down layers of sediment the ones beneath
are buried and hidden from view only to be revealed years later by the
same natural forces. The physical structure of the book form has
allowed me to hide and reveal images and text in a similar manner. In
addition to being able to print directly to the felt using the
Vandercook, I have incorporated traditional sewn binding methods
instead of glue to hold the sculptures together.
Ben Lansky:
Using portraits photographed on a city bus, I created a multi-faceted
project involving handmade and commissioned prints. At MCBA I’ve
created photographic prints through newly learned processes.
Exploration of these mediums has allowed my conceptual art practice to
navigate down a new path.
Amanda Lovelee:
The set of four books on display were created by artist Amanda Lovelee
and are part of a larger project she has been working on for over a
year. The Call and Answer Project is a project about human connection,
strangers holding hands, and the joy of square dancing. The project
has many components ranging from a documentary movie, participatory
square dances, photo booths where if you hold hands with strangers you
get such rewards as a piece of pie or free books. In June, MCBA helped
Lovelee host an all night printing party and square dance as part of
Northern Spark. On that night 2000 books were printed with the help of
many volunteers. At the show opening in November you will get a chance
to watch Lovelee’s 17 min. movie and pose for a photograph with a
stranger to receive one of the letterpressed books.
Rachel Perlmeter:
As a writer, director, choreographer and filmmaker, I have been
immersed in an exploration that considers principles of narrative,
time, space and physicality. Experimenting with these ideas in the
context of the book arts I’ve discovered that the book is a dynamic
entity, a machine that conveys ideas, a catalyst, an engine, a set of
instructions. The installation I have designed strives to stop time,
to highlight discontinuities, negative spaces and omissions. It
captures action in an envelope, movement in film stills, dialogue in
lead type, messages in bottles… I view all of this as a kind of
personal ekphrasis — interpreting one form of art in another medium.
The aesthetic is one of translation. Using the Brecht/Weill/Balanchine
ballet “The Seven Deadly Sins” as a point of departure, I consider
sins of omission and enlist the viewer/spectator/reader to contribute
to the creation of a collective chronicle. (Rachel Perlmeter is a
crossmedia artist working in the interstitial spaces between theatre,
dance, sound, and installation art.)
Keith Taylor:
My project, “Dark Matter”, centers around my search for interesting
shadows and shapes in the landscape around the Soudan Underground
Laboratory in northern Minnesota, where the CDMS II project is looking
for evidence of dark matter. My photographs use the visual phenomenon
of shadows to imply the presence of dark matter in a conceptual way,
and are printed in photogravure to take full advantage of the inky
blackness and slightly embossed surface of the medium. The book, in an
edition of ten, consists of a suite of twenty unbound, but sequenced,
photogravures printed on Rives BFK with letterpress text pages, and
enclosed in a single tray case. I had always thought of a gallery as
being the final showcase for my photography, but the MCBA/Jerome
Foundation mentorship has shown me how it’s possible to incorporate
the book arts into my work and how it’s a logical alternative to
displaying a sequence of images on a wall.
Since 1985 the Jerome Foundation has helped artists push the
boundaries of contemporary book arts by supporting the creation of new
book works. Under the previous ten series of fellowships, Minnesota
artists of diverse disciplines — including printers, papermakers,
binders, painters, sculptors, poets, photographers, essayists and
others — have created projects ranging from exquisitely crafted fine
press volumes to documented performances to one-of-a-kind
installations that “break the bindings” and redefine conventional
notions of book form and content.
As the largest and most comprehensive center of its kind in the
nation, Minnesota Center for Book Arts celebrates the book as a
vibrant contemporary art form that takes many shapes. From the
traditional crafts of papermaking, letterpress printing and
bookbinding to non-traditional artmaking and self-publishing
techniques, MCBA supports the limitless creative evolution of book
arts. To learn more, visit our website at www.mnbookarts.org.