“A Tentative Conversation” Mo16
accordion book
260cm W x 17cm H
grape vine tendrils, graphite, ink, gouache, thread, watercolour paper, Japanese Abaca paper
Artist’s Statement: making an opening for listening
was selected for the Manly Artists’ Book Award 2017, this was my third try at this show, “An illuminated Book of Cats” didn’t make the grade in 2011 & in 2015 “The Spirit Book of the Spirit Books” and “Out of the Blue” didn’t get in either but this one did!
It was a dark and stormy night for the opening… the traffic was appalling, took us two hours to get there (a 45 minute drive when it’s not raining in peak hour) so we arrived just as the awards were being announced. There was some very good work in the show but sadly mine was displayed inside out with the “gates” closed on a low plinth that was too small for the work… I rearranged the piece as best I could considering the position and then Roderick could see it was time to get me out of there before I imploded. He’s such a champion, kept his cool driving there and back again in pouring rain and had me laughing by the time we got home, some gigs are certainly better than others!
On a lighter note Liz Ackert is stitching “imagine peace” onto safety pins and sending them out into the world
her stitching is so exquisitely fine on beautiful old indigo dyed linen, here it is on Grace of Windthread’s “x-roads cloth” with The Pale Rook’s “Fish Bones”
Ariel is looking fabulous this morning, his eyes are bright, his coat is shining, he’s eating with gusto, purring madly & running up and down the stairs. He’s still on the non steroidal anti inflammatory pain medication and the blood in his pee is still happening intermittently but he will be with us for a good while yet, he’s such a magic cat!
Manly Artists’ Book Award 2017
Posted: March 31, 2017 by Mo Crow in art exhibitions, It's Crow TimeTags: bookbinding, cats, inspiration
Comments
Congrats on the selection.Sorry about the presentation.It’s annoying when galleries miss salient points!
And Ariel P.? Big hugs to the old boy.Oh. go ahed-have a hug yerself.
(((Di))) Ariel is purring right here enjoying your comment and so am I… y’know I sent along an A4 printed photo with instructions for setting the work up (it is fragile) which was completely ignored, by turning the work inside out and closing the gates it negated my artist’s statement. Manly Library is getting a good collection of Artist’s Books together and there was some fabulous work there but I will not bother entering ever again… this was an epic fail as the young folk say these days!
Hope you are OK up there near the centre of the cyclone!
Mo…Congrats on getting into the show; sad that the curator of the show did not know how to appropriately display your work; glad you got to do some re-arranging. The Liz Ackert piece is wonderful. And such happy vibes as Ariel looks so regal in his pose this morning.
Kristin
(((Kristen))) the good thing is we have the day off today, the Book of Honesty is halfway to being bound & looking good, will post about it soon!
Bad news and good news, the good news is Ariel is fine and looking gorgeous…………….
(((Martine))) he is such a proud and wise old cat!
Congrats to you, and to that handsome handsome boy!!!!!!!!!!
(((Arlee))) I live with two of the finest fellows in the world!
Hi Mo, the first show I was accepted in was the Willoughby Art Prize, so excited, sure I’d win or at least come second! When I arrived I couldn’t find my work anywhere, finally I found it on the back side of a partition facing an exit door, it was a wall piece you needed to look into and they had it on a low pedestal so that you had to crouch down to see it properly (even if they found the work nobody crouched..). It was a work that needed light for the shadow play and they had it with no lighting, it was in the shadow of the partition. It looked like it was there so the garbage men could take it away. Ah expectations…..
(((Bronwyn))) one of the things we need for moments like these is the hide of a fucking rhinoceros combined with a very good sense of the absurd!
I did truly laugh out loud
(((Liz))) your imagine peace really did help me from making some major mayhem, there’s a touch of the gallows in my sense of humour today!
And this in turn makes me glow with happiness … as does the juxtaposition of imagine peace with Grace’s x-roads cloth
(((Liz))) you’re a treasure
Congratulations on your selection anyway, Mo. It amazes me that they were so insensitive to the way your work should have been displayed. Ariel is looking fabulous!
(((Julie))) this just makes me appreciate Madeleine and her professional curating at Artsite, she always brings out the best in my work!
Congratulations nevertheless. So happy to hear that Ariel is doing well. Bittersweet times. I lost my beloved Raven cat last summer. The good days were golden.
(((Beth))) your Raven was one of those magic black cats that come into our lives!
Congratulations Mo . . . how wonderful! And Ariel does indeed look very healthy and handsome.
(((Wendy))) exhibiting bares the soul, as Don DeLillo said in Great Jones St (1973) “Be naked at the moment of delivery” & the show must go on! have no idea how actors work night after night heart and soul in a show that has been panned by the critics… disrespect still cuts deep even after all these years & layers of scar tissue!
Yay, Ariel!! And, congratulations! (how dismal, though, that your work was not presented well, discouraging!)
(((V))) have learned a big lesson… never enter fragile works in shows where I am not there for the set up
Hearty congrats for being accepted and Heartfelt thoughts regarding the mis-display of your work. Your beloved cat is gorgeous! So shiny!
(((Nancy))) this is the best day Ariel has had in three weeks!
Oh, Mo…Congratulations, in spite of Them. I had a very similar experience at one of the show openings this year, needing to fix my piece, the rain, rush hour, K patiently getting me there & putting up with my mood. Smiling at your beautiful arrangement of peace and company, and admiration for Ariel’s furry handsome self!
(((Hazel))) this wonderful bunch of like minded spirits has buoyed my spirits, x fingers the GPS show at Artsite opening this weekend will be both fun and rewarding!
Congrats Mo – how thoughtlessly disrespectful of the gallery curators – growl… !!! So glad Rod was there for you – Ariel looks sagely majestic – what fab news of him – he is a magical being.
(((Susi))) he even jumped up on the fence to enjoy the autumn sun on the roof of the garden shed and has put on a little weight with all the good vibes and the wonder of modern medicine!
Congratulations and commiserations! It all depends on the person on the day. 😑 Such a lovely shot of Ariel. Our mog was at the cattery while we had a few days away. She came back with a pot belly after they fed her all her biscuits – the other half pointed out that the regular biscuit box has written on it ‘one scoop per meal’, but we had put a new scoop in and it was twice the size of the old one! At least the cat was happy!
(((Leonie))) too true re the person setting up on the day with shows organized by committees, has your cat been wondering why she’s not getting more bikkies?
She’s suffering mightily!😿
congratulations on being selected this time, three times lucky? all the images here are beautiful, love how you have displayed all these artworks together, they suit one another
(((Saskia))) they do!
Ack…but still…..somehow people would have been blessed by your work even tho.
(((Grace))) sadly, the square plinth it is set up on is only 500mm x 500mm x 500mm (20″x20″x 20″) too low and small for the work to be seen to any advantage & too easy for little kids who can’t read the “do not touch” sign. Unfortunately I signed on delivery that if the work is damaged or goes missing that is my problem not the organizers, whatever survives will get taken apart and turned into cards or whatever…
sorry about the showing, but how nice to have been selected. I once did a craft show where my table was at the end of a long, narrow hall leading to the bathroom — people lined up to pee, not to look at my work! Maybe the fact that you make kind of genre-busting pieces is part of why they got it so wrong?
Anyway, arlee took the kitty words right out of my mouth — what a handsome boy that Ariel is. Truly striking. I see the Egyptian.
(((Dee))) artist books as a genre are edgy, sculptural and push the idea of book-ness into new ways of seeing and relating, the works displayed were all of a very high standard and a good half of the show was extraordinary. Seeing my book in such good company was an eye opener and the good thing is the Book of Honesty is working, the covers are glued in, setting under under weights until tomorrow morning, it is my first truly elegant book. When the world throws a major curve ball making art helps get my groove back.
Ariel knows he is a descendant of Bastet, the cat goddess of Egypt!
What makes you say it is elegant?
the covers for the Book of Honesty are pared back to their essence with a limited palette of two tones of grey matching the paper used for the drawings & stitched plant material, will post photos tomorrow with some process shots when I take it out from under the weights, feeling very excited, this is a leap forward in my bookwork