3rd Australian Artists' Books Forum

Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 February 2006

Artspace Mackay

Click here for Conference Program

An article by visiting UK artist Sarah Bodman on her trip to the 3rd Australian Artists' Books Forum and her two week residency at Southern Cross University is also available at the Centre for Fine Print Research website at http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/focus3.htm

The 3rd Australian Artists' Books Forum was organised by Artspace Mackay as Australia's main artists' books conference with a program which included keynote lectures, presentations, discussion panels and artists' talks.

The Conference was presented as part of the FOCUS ON ARTISTS' BOOKS III program which included the conference, exhibitions (the First Libris Awards: Australian Artists' Books Prize), practical masterclasses, displays and workshops.

FOCUS ON ARTISTS' BOOKS III is an Arstpace Mackay program which aims to stimulate critical dialogue about artists' books and the book arts in Australia, provide professional development opportunities for artists working in the field and generate broader awareness of the artform within our region and nationally.

International visiting artists and presenters were also hosted for a two week residency following the conference with these organisations:

• Marshall Weber at the Australian National University, Canberra
• Narae Kim at Australian National University, Canberra
• Sarah Bodman at Southern Cross University, Lismore
• Odine Lang at James Cook University, Townsville
• Keith Smith at The Studio West End, Brisbane
• Scott McCarney at Studio West End, Brisbane

FOCUS ON ARTISTS' BOOKS III was an Artspace Mackay project celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Print Council of Australia nd Imprint Magazine. Supported by the Regional Arts Fund, an Australian Government initiative supporting the arts in regional, remote and very remote/isolated Australia. This project has also been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Thanks to project partners:

Click here for Marshall Weber's paper

His art and curatorial work often explores issues of ecology, ethics, linguistics, peace activism, social justice, and theology. His artwork is collected and exhibited internationally and is in the collections of the Bibliotheque Nacional de Luxembourg, the Library of Congress, MoMA, NY, MOMA, S.F., the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Smithsonian Institute Museum of American Art and many others. His “Eleven” book was recently on exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and at Museums of Art and Design in Frankfurt, Germany and New York City. Weber was a recent Interdisciplinary Arts Fellow of both the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Intermedia Arts/McKnight Foundation.

Scott McCarney

Lecturer, Books and Bookbinding

Rochester Institute of Technology

New York, USA

Scott McCarney works collaboratively with Keith Smith to develop contemporary interpretations of books and the bookforms. He has exhibited extensively throughout the USA including at the Arts of the Book Collection, Yale University; Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta; PABA Gallery, New Haven and internationally in Sao Paulo; Budapest; Melbourne and Toronto. His works are held in a number of collections including Cambridge University Library, AmericanUniversity; Visual Studies Workshop; State Library of Queensland; Library of Congress; Princeton University Graphic Arts Collection; Victoria and Albert Museum; Yale University Arts of the Book Collection and various private collections. Scott has received residencies and grants including the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts; International Studio Residency in new York; National Endowment for the Arts Mid Atlantic Regional Fellowship for works on paper and a New York State Foundation for the Arts Fellowship.

South Korea

Narae Kim was also the organiser of the 1^st Seoul International Artists’ Book Fair and has also been involved in organising Book Arts exhibitions at the Hyundai National Museum, Insa Art Gallery and Artinus Galleries in Korea as well as in the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.She is the founder and Director of Bookpress publishing in Seoul and is a lecturer at Myong-Ji University (1998- present) and the Seoul Arts Centre Design Academy (2003-present). Previously she has lectured at the Samsung Art & Design Institute( 2003-2004); the Kaywon School of Art & Design (2002); Konkuk University (2001); the University of Seoul (2001); the Korean National University of Arts (2000-2001) and Chungwoon University (1999-2001). She was educated at Sejong University and has completed an M.A. in Book Arts at the Camberwell College of Arts, University of Arts London. Her artworks are included in a number of public collections including the Tate Gallery, London UK; Camberwell College of Arts Library, London UK; Oxford University Library; Chicago Art Institute, USA; Book and Paper Centre, Chicago USA and Columbia University Collection, USA.

Bristol School of Art, Media and Design, UK

Sarah’s own artists’ books include Time Itself a limited edition artist’s book made after a residency at the Jenner Museum, Berkeley, Gloucestershire, in September 2002 and The Marsh Test made during a four- week residency at the Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, New York in Dec 2002. Sarah's own artists' books are included in many international collections such as Tate Britain, the British Library and the V & A Museum, London; Yale Centre for British Art and MOMA, USA; Museum van het Boek, The Hague: Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection; Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York The Art Institute of Chicago, USA and Artspace Mackay, Australia.

Odine Lang

Lecturer in Artists’ Books,

University of Arts,

Brunswick, Germany

One of Germany’s leading practitioners in artists ‘ books, Odine Lang describes her work as “inspired by nature.” Her 3 dimensional works utilise lenseless photography, printmaking techniques and reduce the bookform to simple elements. She works collaboratively with artists, staff and students to develop works that explore variations on the book. Odine lectures in artists’ books at the Brunswick University of Arts within the Department of Design, Fine Arts and Art Theory at one of the largest academic printing workshops in Germany. The Brunswick University of the Arts has been producing artists’ books for almost 40 years ranging from illustrated texts printed with letterpress through to experimental books. Odine has exhibited extensively throughout Europe including Germany, Lithuania, Finland and South Korea and her work is held in a number of public collections.

Linda is also a new media writer and text artist having produced a number of collaborative and independent works including hypertexts, artist books and text based works. Her projects include a Writer's Residency as part of the Australian Network for Art and Technology project, *Water Writes Always in *Plural, working collaboratively online with Josephine Wilson to produce a hypermedia work. This work was awarded the inaugural Salt Hill Award for Hypertext (University of Syracuse, NY) in 1998 and received a Honourable Mention in the trAce/AltX International Hypertext Competition. She also collaborated again with Josephine Wilson to produce cipher and they participated in Ensemble Logic, a series of online lectures and forums organised by the Electronic Writing Research Ensemble. Her work, speak: a hypertext essay was presented as part of the INK.ubation Salon in conjunction with the trAce conference, Incubation in 2000, the Electronic Literature Organisation’s conference and MAAP99. Her most recent work is racconto. Several of Linda’s works are required or suggested reading in university courses in the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia. In 2003, Linda received a Centenary Medal from the federal government for ‘long and distinguished service to the arts’.

Angela Cavalieri

artist

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

ANGELA CAVALIERI was born in Melbourne and studied printmaking at the Victorian College of the Arts from 1981—1983. She has exhibited since 1984 in solo exhibitions including Christine Abrahams, Syme Dodson, Smyrnios Gallery and Motor Works Gallery. She has participated in many group exhibitions most recently, Academici: Answering the Other Question, Monash University Faculty Gallery and The British School at Rome Gallery.

She has been awarded several prizes including the Silk Cut Print Award 2000 and the Shell Fremantle Print Award 1999. In 2001, she was granted a 3 months residency at the British School in Rome from the Visual Arts/Craft Board of the Australia Council. She also received a Project Grant in 1990 and an Overseas Studio in Tuscany, Italy in 1987 from the Australia Council. Between 2001 and 2005 she has inaugurated and curated a touring exhibition, Script, with venues including: Mass Gallery, Melbourne, Horsham, Swan Hill, Gippsland Regional Victorian Galleries, Macquarie University Gallery and Lismore Regional Art Gallery in NSW. Angela’s work is held in many public and private collections including the Australian National Gallery, The National Gallery of Victoria, Gold Coast City Gallery QLD, State Library of Victoria, Monash University Library, Silk Cut Collection (Melbourne and Amsterdam) and Art Bank.

Librarian, Australian Library of Art

State Library of Queensland

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Helen Cole is the Librarian, Australian Library of Art at the State Library of Queensland in Brisbane. She has worked for many years at the State Library of Queensland, first as Manuscript Librarian in the John Oxley Library and since 1992 with the James Hardie Library of Australian Fine Arts. She is responsible for the published and archival Australian art research collections and the artists’ books collections within the Library. In 2005 she was part of the curatorial committee for the State Library and Craft Queensland joint exhibition “Sufferance”.

Des Cowley is the Rare Printed Collections Manager at the State Library of Victoria. He is responsible for acquisitions of rare books for the State Collection, and has a particular interest in private press publications and artists' books. He was a judge of the fiction prize for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 1998-99 and 2003, and regularly reviews books for Australian music magazine Rhythms. He previously edited the literary broadside Overland Extra,  and is a current member of Publishing Editorial Board of 3 Deep Design, and the editorial panel of the Bibliographic Society of Australia & New Zealand Bulletin and the La Trobe Journal.  In 2005, he co-curated the State Library of Victoria's permanent exhibition Mirror of the World: Books and Ideas and is currently working on a book based on the exhibition to be published by Melbourne University Publishing.

Nola Farman

Artist

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Nola Farman is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Western Sydney. Her topic is The Artists’ Book and Bookworks. She graduated from the Ontario College of Art, Toronto in 1966. Her art practice is diverse ranging from large environmental works through installations to artists’ books and other bookworks. She has been commissioned to make large public artworks in various parts of Australia including, Brisbane, Canberra, Sydney and Perth. The installations often include sound, video and electronic components. Ms Farman's bookworks have been collected by The Baltic Centre, Gateshead, UK; the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Art Metropole, Toronto; Pays-Paysage, St-Yrieix-la-Perche, France; Te Papa the National Gallery and Canterbury Gallery, New Zealand; Scitech Discovery Centre Perth; Janet Holmes a Court; Lady Sheila Cruthers and numerous private collections in Europe and North America.

Ms Farman has received a number of awards including an Australia Council Two Year Fellowship (1997) and two Premier's Awards, namely the  Western Australian Civic Design Award (1995)and the Predominantly Landscape Environment Award (1995) in association with Forbes and Fitzhardinge Woodland, Architects and Urban Planners. In the same year she received the Mundaring Arts Centre Inaugural Prize for Self-portraiture. The East Perth Redevelopment of the Claisebrook Greenway received the L.I.N. Award of Excellence and Nola Farman was a Public Art Consultant on that team working  with Tract Landscape Architects. In 1991 she was awarded a Diploma of Honor at the Prix Ars Electronica, in Linz, Austria (for The lift Project). Ms Farman has also received a number of project grants from the Australia Council, the Australian Network for Art and Technology and the West Australian Department for the Arts.

Julie Haas

artist

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Juli Haas works from her  studio at home in Murrumbeena in Victoria. She is  a printmaker and painter  producing watercolors, self published  artists books and limited edition drypoint prints Her narrative figurative style explores a very personal interior world.The work is influenced by my private world …childhood memories, dream, literature and contemporary music. This interior exploration coupled with observations of her everyday world  are translated through metaphor and symbol into a 'dark' psychological space. Haas has exhibited work nationally with solo exhibitions in Melbourne Sydney Brisbane and other major centres and touring shows of galleries in regional Victoria and Brisbane. She is currently preparing for exhibitions in Perth and Canberra in 2006 as well as a major retrospective survey of her work to be exhibited in Melbourne

Haas has had work included in many international exhibitions ranging from the Artist Book fairs in London to exhibitions in countries including Macedonia Germany USA etc Her work is in collections both private and public in Australia and overseas in such countries as USA Britain China,Japan Portugal France etc. Some career highlights include Intergrafia in the World Award Winners Gallery in Poland and winning the prestigious Sir John Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW . She was one of two printmakers exhibiting in Seattle in USA…the exhibition opening two days before ‘September 11’ She also worked with Tate Adams  and Lyrebird Press….producing a limited edition artist book entitled Seven Deadly Sins in Sideshow Alley. Commissions include producing the member print for The Print Council of Australia.

Andrea Stretton

Contributing Editor, Books, Art and Australia

ABC and SBS TV presenter

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

She is best known for her fifteen years (1987-2001) of television arts on Australia’s two national broadcasting stations. She was Presenter, Series Editor and scriptwriter for the long-running SBS TV programs The Bookshow (a weekly program about authors from around the world) and Masterpiece (a showcase for international arts documentaries); and for ABC TV’s extensive arts program Sunday Afternoon.  She hosts major arts events along with interviewing authors and artists in the public arena and at festivals. Andrea was awarded the prestigious Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Government in 2002, acknowledging her outstanding contribution to the arts and the fostering of French Australian cultural relations.

Steven Tonkin is currently working as an independent curator in Melbourne, and has a personal interest in both artists' books and multiples. During 2005, Steven was the Senior Curator at Cairns Regional Gallery, managing the Gallery's exhibition program, as well as curating a number of shows, including a survey of Tom Risley's recent work and the forthcoming Paradise Found: imaging the Tropics, which explores artist's engagements with the landscape of Far North Queensland. From 2006 to 2004 Steven worked at the National Gallery of Australia in various roles, including with Education & Public Programs, as a curatorial assistant in Australian Art and as Assistant Curator, Research, which involved working across both the Australian and International colelctions. His main interest is in twentieth century art, with particular expertise in Australian modernism, post-war American art, conceptual and Contenmporary art.

Having studied Economics then Art History and Curatorship at the Australian National University, Steven is currently writing bhis PhD dissertation on the artist's book as an alternative space, from the 1960s to the present. His research charts the emergence of the artists' book in the 1960s and the accompanying literature legitimising the artform as a 'democratic multiple', as well as locating Australian practice within an international context.

Judy Watson is an Indigenous artist whose matrilineal family is from country in North West Queensland.  She co-represented Australia in the 1997 Venice Biennale and won the Moet & Chandon Fellowship in 1995. Her work is included in major Australian and International collections and she has exhibited widely over the past 20 years.  Her recent public art commissions include – Wurreka, a fifty metre etched zinc wall for the Melbourne Museum;  Walama forecourt, a sculptural installation of woven steel screens and upturned bronze dilly bags at Sydney International Airport.;  Ngarrn-gi Land/Law, a fifty metre etched zinc wall at the Victorian County Court, Melbourne. 

Her survey exhibition sacred ground beating heart’ was exhibited at the John Curtin Gallery, Curtin University, Perth, WA in 2003 and at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane and  toured South East Asia in 2004.  Her work, heart/land/river 2004, a large photographic and light piece on glass is in the foyer of the new Brisbane Magistrates Court.  She is one of eight Australian Aboriginal artists commissioned to make work for the new Musee du Quai Branly in Paris opening in June 2006.