A small (or large) machine
Details
Type of record: Book
Title: A small (or large) machine
Classmark: Artists' Books 274
Additional creator(s): McDowall, John (1953-) (Book artist); Loss, Sophie (Organizer); AMBruno (Group of artists) (Other); Tetley (Leeds, England) (Host institution)
Related people: McDowall, John, 1953-; McDowall, John, 1953-
Publisher: [John McDowall]
Publication city: [Leeds?]
Date(s): 2015
Language: English
Size and medium: 1 volume (unpaged)
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/773733
Printed items catalogue: https://leeds.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=44LEE_INST:VU1&docid=alma991020196796205181
Description
Cover title.
Open edition, perfect bound, 68 leaves plus cover, 7.3 x 14.7 cm, laser print, 2015.
"Re object: The idea for this exhibition - initiated and curated by Sophie Loss - was to give each contributing artist the same originating object as a starting point for a new piece of work. Identical oak wedges were sent to sixteen invited artists, in response to which they have made exciting and unexpected works. The show includes pieces in sound, books, film/projection, photography, drawing, site-specific installation and performance. The oak wedge was designed by John McDowall and made by Jonny Buck at the Bradford Woodworkers workshop. Re object was shown at The Tetley, Leeds, from 6th to 22nd March 2015, with the opening coinciding with the 18th International Artists' Book Fair, Leeds."-- AMBruno website.
"A flip-book of black and white photographs in which the sequence of pages/animation shows a left to right pan along the length of the wooden wedge, from the thick to the thin end (or the reverse, if viewed from the back to the front cover). This represented diminishment of volume is echoed in the progressive reduction of thickness of the book as the pages are flicked through. The title is taken from William Carlos Williams' introduction to his collection of poems The Wedge, in this he relates a poem to a machine, "... its movement is intrinsic, undulant, a physical more than literary character". In the exhibition the book, and its activation, is accompanied by the sound of J.S. Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E minor BWV 548, which begins with one note, then two either side forming a minor third, gradually expanding. These analogies allude to the form and functional qualities of a wedge, correspondences further reflected in the mechanical action of the turning of pages and the operational components of a pipe organ."-- AMBruno website.
Access and usage
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