touching rainforest
from the archipelago of remnant gardens suite of books
2014, artists book – single segment case bound, variable edition of 4
relief prints on awagami kozo, rainforest ply, curved folding folio
34 x 78 open, one artists proof book.
“In pursuit of rainforest wood I stumbled across a pile of unwanted sheets of luan plywood in a wholesaler’s warehouse. Cut to size for a major client only to be rejected by them, the plywood sheets were being offered at a very reduced price just to recoup some costs. Luan plywood is manufactured from rainforest timbers loosely titled Meranti, often illegally and unethically logged within the Asia Pacific rim. These plywood sheets allowed me to literally restore an intimate haptic touch with the rainforest (the bush) within the confines of Brisbane city, without supporting illegal rainforest logging practices. I purchased twenty sheets for experimentation and printed all twenty sheets raw, that is, unaltered. The resulting combination of rainforest wood, industry processes, printmaking process and prints within the context of the haptic touch provided me the direction that Spivak's and Weil's critique of representation demanded of my practice. It also reduced the touching distance between my books and the rainforest.”
reception;
Bodman, S. L. (2014) “
collections;
Books on Books collection, Bodliean Libraries, University of Oxford.
Private collections
exhibitions:
re/membering touch, white gloves room, State Library of Queensland, 2014