World BookNight 2023 Submission: Albert and Arthur

Remembering our grandfathers, Albert and Arthur: Having regularly submitted work to the annual World Book Night event organised by Sarah Bodman and Linda Parr – this year we took a different approach. Upon release of the 2023 theme ‘I Remember’ we determined to produce a limited edition book that would celebrate our memories of maternal and paternal grandparents – this subsequently enabled us each to select an individual image to submit to WBN. Previously the submission would have been produced first and then followed up with a book of the same theme. This new working methodology offered a greater sense of freedom and choice. Unlike the final book pages, the artwork submitted was our individual responses rather than combined memories.

Remembering Nora, Albert, Ruby, Edwin et al…

With the release of this year’s theme for World Book Night coinciding with our successful application to attend Leeds book fair – both of which events occur in March – we determined to take a different approach to previous methodologies. Former submissions to WBN had resulted in a single collaborative artwork being produced, which was subsequently developed into a limited edition book. T proposed turning the sequence around, therefore we will begin by producing a bookwork based on the given theme of I Remember, when completed it will afford the opportunity to select a page from within the edition to submit to UWE.

Discussions around Joe Brainard’s I Remember book, and the stipulation in the brief that the work be based on ‘something that no longer exists’ helped form ideas based on our respective grandparents and how much we were able to recall. T produced a spreadsheet with topics based on the Brainard model, which we completed over a short period of time and shared. A pre-arranged making day in February will be an opportunity to finalise the form and structure of the book, plan the content order and discuss materials and processes; if time allows we will endeavour to produce printed endpapers. For the production of the book we will adopt the same approach as Kitchenalia, and work individually on the divided pages, which when completed, will be swapped and added to.

2021 World Book Night: Companion Planting

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The annual world book night event organised by Sarah Bodman at UWE, Bristol, was an opportunity to return to starting points, and techniques employed within our 2020 response and employ new working methodology established whilst working from home throughout lockdown. In response to the stop/start project we determined to submit a collaborative response to the given theme of The Herbarium. Initial research around the WBN2021 theme led to the discovery of the phrase companion planting

Companion planting in gardening and agriculture is the planting of different crops in proximity for any of a number of different reasons, including pest control, pollination, providing habitat for beneficial insects, maximizing use of space, and to otherwise increase crop productivity. Wikipedia

This seemed to offer the opportunity to make responses collaboratively and further reading offered a suggested list of plants and vegetables to select from. Using our established FaceTime to talk around this project, and with a limited format of 8 x 8cm, we determined to maintain the use of the C6 envelope as the substrate, however the artwork would be placed on the envelope front rather than the inside. By each selecting a preferred plant/vegetable combination T: lavender/leeks, P: sunflower/chives – the first task was to produce a visual response to the others vegetable choice; as this was seen as a secondary element, designs were kept intentionally simple and enabled several options to be completed and subsequently posted. On receipt of these envelopes, we added our relevant flower element employing embellishment to the vegetable design.  A subsequent FaceTime conversation afforded time to discuss final presentation and submission details to enable each individual submission to connect to the other. Final responses, and email submission details, were sent separately (at the same time and on the same day) echoing our shared response to WBN2020 and becoming a fourth response to P White, his typewriter, the correction papers, and making in collaboration.

Vienna to New York

With the arrival of T’s postcard and typed ‘backs’ I was able to assemble the individual elements of the cards to form the final pieces, duplexing – using card in a key colour from each image for the middle layer – helped to make the cards more substantial and offered continuity.

T’s finished card emphasised the fact that my submission involved too many elements and was over-designed, it was also trying too hard to convey the place, whilst Tamar’s remained more abstract.

It is interesting to see that both cards appear to highlight the word better – was this intentional on T’s part? Certainly, from my point of view, the placement of the green rectangle that contains the word, was purely by chance. Was T’s more considered?

Having read the process T followed, it is clear she gives a lot more consideration to P White and his potential relationship to Elizabeth Bishop; this focus has enabled a strong use of language as part of the postcard text matter – with translations in German and Italian offering an interesting and thoughtful narrative. The imagery is a distillation of ideas and subsequently is more successful than my own contribution, which needed editing and refining.

Decision Making: Layout, Language and Pattern

 

In response to the selected poem, agreed sequence of rules and visual starting point,  I began to undertake independent research around possible written and visual responses for a collaborative submission to world book night.

Beginning with P White, and the idea that if he purchased the typewriter in 1976, it would have been possible for a written correspondence with Elizabeth Bishop to take place for 3 years until her death in 1979.  I imagined that P travelled with the typewriter throughout these years and sent postcards to Elizabeth in response to the questions of travel raised in her poem.What if the individual letters, words, and phrases on each correction paper link to this correspondence?  The word better could be a comment from P  to Elizabeth in terms of better to visit a place than stay at home? And the phrase has received the gift ofcould be a reason for travel.

First research into the poem, Questions of Travel, unearthed references to Elizabeth being a passionate observer and that the poem is a wonderful mosaic of things that one can see and hear(https://www.modernamericanpoetry.org/content/elizabeth-bishopquestions-travel). A mosaic is defined as a pattern made by placing small pieces together which could become a visual response for the front of the postcard. Elizabeth questions whether to travel or not, in addition to what might be missed if we chose to stay at home.  References are made to missed opportunities which could inform a visual response by removing, covering, or erasing imagery.

Drawing upon my experiences of visiting Vienna in 2017 (one year after I purchased P White’s typewriter) I revisited photographs taken, recalling giving the gift of an opera ticket to watch The Rosenkavalier at The Staatsoper. During the music festival season of 1979 The Rosenkavalier was also performed in Vienna and P White could have seen this too and I began to research around Opera, making links to the idea of sight and sound within found statements. Key ideas emerging included:

• opera can make us see, feel and hear the world differently.
• opera performed live is storytelling at its most vivid
• in the company of strangers we share a profound and transformative cultural experience
• Is there anything like hearing an opera performed live? A sight and sound to behold
• you’ll be completely transported by your surroundings

Alongside this, I also explored Vienna as a possible starting point for a visual response.  First research led to some consideration around the use of the river Danube, or the street map of the city as a shape, the use of gold and red in the postcard to convey the heritage of the Habsburg monarchy. I also considered references to local culinary specialities, specifically the Viennese Kaffeehaus which is reported as a kind of public living room where you can sit over a single cup of coffee for many hours reading newspapers or books.   Whilst this seemed like the place P White would have visited, I was increasingly drawn to the opera as a starting point when reading overarching statements around exceptional acoustics, and the notion of what would Vienna be without music?

Having selected some representation of opera as the starting point for both the visual and written sides of the postcard, I returned to the Der Rosenkavalier to explore this further. Written by a German poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal, the opera is based in Vienna in the tie of Empress Maria Theresa (mid to late 18th century). The music and the words depict the elegant life of aristocratic society of that time. A key element is a silver rose which was sent by a bridegroom to his bride. I returned to my own photographs taken in Vienna and searched out images of roses.  I enlarged these and explored colour changes by use of the copier machine exploring the idea of over printing this onto the correction paper.

Alongside this,  I noted comments around language changes within this opera according to who was speaking.  This could be polite, old fashioned, familiar, German or Italian! I explored adding speech markings to all letters on the correction paper and trialled ideas using decorative grammar markings to symbolise talking. This led to  translating words from Elizabeth’s poem and the correction paper into both German and Italian and exploring phrases which combined both. The decorative markings of repeated grammar reminded me of pattern found within architecture and could link to the inside of the opera house.  I began to explore answers P might have given to Elizabeth in response to her questions around travel, and worked more extensively on the text side of the postcard.  Having agreed on the number of words would be written, I made several drafts exploring the potential of this idea by playing with layout and language.

To complete the visual side of the postcard, I returned to the idea of a mosaic and explored how to add pattern to the correction paper.  I considered over printing  photographs and decorative grammar markings alongside constructing pattern directly onto the surface.  Self-adhesive labels allowed considered colour to be added and some opportunity for more careful placement than overprinting and I returned to this process used in previous projects. Some consideration of the layout of letters and words on the correction paper and tracing paper trials were undertaken which seemed to allow for pattern to be arranged around these in order for key words to remain readable. Labels were printed with combinations of grammar markings and arranged making use of research into decorative ceilings found in Vienna at the time depicted within the opera.

Working individually on one part of a collaborative project was challenging.  Time was taken searching for a focus to the project by exploring the possibility of multiple strands of research.  This resulted in going round in circles for some time.  The agreed deadline and initial series of rules very much helped to move my ideas forward and decisions were finally formed to enable the timely completion of the project with the text for both postcards produced on the typewriter once belonging to P White.

Round and round in circles

With the United States as my starting point, I hoped to be led not only by the content of the correction paper but by the knowledge that the product (correction papers) originated from a suburb of New York – this would enable me to narrow my search – and align geographically with the fact that T was exploring a city (Vienna) not a country.

Therefore, research began into the suburb of Glen Cove, NY, and whilst there were some interesting facts and historical data, there was nothing that seemed particularly significant to communicate a sense of place. Instead I returned to the correction paper and noted that the number 6 had been typed 10 times in a row plus there was a single 6.

Recognising the connection between numbers and the New York street system, I began looking at both 60^thStreet and 6^thAvenue. These searches were far more enlightening and offered a range of possibilities. Buildings such as the Grolier Club (for book lovers) and the Devinne Press Building both on East 60^thStreet seemed to resonate effectively with World Book Night. However, it was the transport networks and maps, particularly from a graphic point of view that offered the most appeal and led to the discovery of the IND Sixth Avenue Line – so this was to become the focus of the postcard. However, at this point the project faltered and went off in a range of different directions; there was a concern that the idea didn’t link effectively with the starting texts we had been given, and initially the idea concentrated purely on the Sixth Avenue line, but after much deliberation expanded to encompass more aspects of the subway map.

Rather than finalising the idea before starting the project, work began by using simple mono-printed shapes on top of the correction papers to define the profile of Manhattan and enable the Sixth Avenue Line to be highlighted; at this stage it became apparent that the image needed to be supported by some sort of text and the subway system itself offered a partial alphabet to work with.

Research was undertaken into all the names that NYC is known by – Big Apple, Gotham, The City that Never Sleeps etc., before deciding on So Nice They Named it Twice, which was translated using the available letters from the subway map. How to reproduce this on the card was problematic and initial ideas to take a digital approach were eventually replaced by using typewriter text onto coloured labels – to suggest rather than replicate. For the text matter on the postcard reverse a section of a poem by Joyce Kilmer entitled The Subway was used – and the same type treatment applied to echo the title text.

At this stage there were concerns that the introduction of another poem was over-complicating the project, so it seemed important to try to integrate an element of the Elizabeth Bishop poem. The line Three towers, five silver crosses appeared to have significance, and after researching NYC churches, the decision was taken to identify three of the tallest towers in NYC; these were added to the map and labelled by their relevant height. At this point the question arose as to whether or not there was any need to highlight the Sixth Avenue Line on the map – were there too many ideas? so tests were undertaken with both washi tape and a machine stitched line, it was the latter that enabled greater control, and the textured quality confirmed the decision for inclusion.

It’s fair to say that the vast nature of NY subject matter in relation to research was an ongoing issue and impacted on the decision making process; when combined with our unspoken but self-imposed isolation – not being able to bounce ideas backwards and forwards with T was another hinderance to the overall process.