BOOKSHELVES

Other people's bookshelves are always very intriguing and Its Nice That are currently doing an interesting strand where they invite creative people to talk about their five favourite books accompanied by a photo of their shelves....

here are graphic designer and illustrator Supermundane's....

and here are mine...

We always try and keep the shelves free of clutter but it never works and they inevitably become a dumping ground for lots of random stuff.

Deciding on 5 favorites is tricky....so these are my go to books when I need some inspiration.

1. Rinko Kawauchi, Cui Cui
I stumbled across this beautiful book while in Toyko years ago and immediately feel in love with Kawauchi's photographs of her family which were taken over  a 13 year period  – individually the photos don't look like much but when you take the book as a whole it is a beautiful reflection on the ordinariness of life and death. This is the book I probably look at most frequently.

2. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
The imagery is fantastic - a dream of a novel.

3. Saul Leiter, Early Colour
An amazing collection of colour photos taken by Leiter in the 50s. I always find his crops, angles and use of colour so inspiring.

4. F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gastby
I read this first in school and have reread it so many times since, it was probably the first novel I truly loved.

5. Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook: A History volumes I and II
I always end up looking at these before I start a new book, it is like having the National Art Library at the V&A in condensed form, and consequently both volumes are heavily post-it noted

INTERVIEW: SIOUX BRADSHAW

I fell in love with illustrator Sioux Bradshaw's little books about art (a bargain at £3 each) and cartoon strips while browsing in the bookartbookshop in Hoxton, as they made me laugh out loud. Sioux started producing these tiny books on artists and life 5 years ago, while she was studying for her degree in Illustration and was so aggrieved that art students had to write a dissertation, she decided to illustrate it with cartoon strips about fine art appropriation. These were later published by Private Eye and she has since gone on to become Private Eye's literary psychologist (although I'm not quite sure what that is). She says about her work: 'I do whatever pops into my head – mostly it’s been art, sex and cats'... Sounds like a winning combination to me.


What are you working on? 
I’m getting work ready for an exhibition at the bookartbookshop, on February 18, it’s a series of monoprints called ‘Postcards from the M25’. It’s thoughts I’ve had on the motorway (I can’t actually drive).

What attracted you to self-publishing?
I’ve always wanted to write a novel but am by nature lazy, so was really happy when I was shown how to make a 8 page fold book, even I can do 8 pages.

What was your proudest moment? 
After I graduated I made a book called ‘Where’s My Dictator’ to send to art directors. I got a two page review in the New Statesman by the editor David Gibbons, and Noam Cholmsky said it was ‘sadly relevant’ – I was just trying to get illustration work.

What or who has been your biggest influence?
I think walking into the bookartbookshop; for me it was like walking into my ideal living room. Both Tanya and Kelly (who run the bookartbookshop) have been enormously supportive, have never found me strange and often give me cake.

What inspires you?
Fecundity, I like people who can’t help creating, I’m not actually very concerned about quality, I like the abundant overspill of creativity.

What was the last thing you saw that made you go wow?          
‘Fela’ at the National, was extraordinary, heart racing, provoking and distressing.

What makes you happy?  
People often don’t like squirrels or pigeons but I like seeing urban animals succeed –  I like to watch them act cocky and pull girls.

What’s the best advice someone’s ever given you?
The cartoonist Martin Rowson told me ‘It’s s’posed to be fun’ so if I’m ever complaining I remember that.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting out?
Begin!

What’s next?
I’ve written a teen novel and am illustrating it at the moment.

ON LEAVE

A few photos from a new book I am working on of photos that were taken last year when I was on maternity leave, during the precious quiet and still moments while my son Henry napped.

YELLOW + BLACK

I recently discovered the shop Darkroom, they have some great stuff......

INTERVIEW: JENNIE SAVAGE

Top: Jennie at work! (photo: Bryony Dawkes); above: installation shot of the sound piece A Walk from A–Z, which you can listen to here.


Jennie Savage is a conceptual artist who creates site-specific installations, public events, interventions and audio or video pieces that explore the place between public spaces, town planning, constructed landscapes and the personal narratives connected to those sites. Often employing a process that uses archiving and intervention. she seeks to map the other life of a place or community in order to reveal a complex situation, a micro- structure or simply an unheard voice. She has published two books: Depending on Time in 2009 and STAR: A Psycho topography of Place in 2006, and has had major exhibitions in the UK, Mexico, Australia, Morroco and Canada.


What are you currently working on?
I have just finished making an animated film in collaboration with James Tyson and am now preparing for an exhibition which opens in February 2011. The show is called 'Fables From A New World' and through it I am trying to explore the narratives that we have inherited from the birth of modernism and deconstruct how these narratives frame our world. I am particularly interested in the way that science over wrote religion but in many ways we imbue it with the same power.... this is what is says in the press release: 'to explore the undercurrents and issues beneath the surface of Victorian Britain during a time when we were becoming modern: science as a belief system, the museum as an institution, the decline of oral culture, the industrial revolution, the beginnings of rationalisation, the birth of consumerism - all in the shadow of Darwin, uncertainty and anxiety. Through object, text, audio and moving image we are invited to question our perception and understanding of the world and the stories we have inherited.'

I am making this project as part of the Art Share scheme at the National Museum Wales and Oriel Davis, a lovely gallery in Newtown Powys. The premise of the collaboration is to use the museums collection and so the exhibition is based on the work of artist and collector TH Thomas.
 
What attracted you to becoming an artist? 
I don't know really. I have always been quite a passionate person and care deeply about certain issues. I think I found being an artist the most freeing way to persue my interests and work across disciplines, collaborating with other people and making things happen that I care about and feel that I can maybe shed a different light on. Many of my projects are socially proactive and I am primarily working site-specifically. I am exploring the root causes of who we are today and how we have become who we are in relation to the actual realities of our day-to-day lives.

What has been your career path? 
After I finished my MA I had various part-time jobs and carried on making work. Gradually the projects built up until I was able to go full-time as an artist – although I still teach at a few art colleges, which I really enjoy.

What has been your proudest moment? 
The whole STAR Radio project was absolutely amazing from a personal point of view and I still look back and wonder how it all happened. I was really proud of the energy that the project created and the number of people who took ownership over it and got involved – I think be the end we had had about 500 people through the doors doing something.

What or who has been your biggest influence? What or who inspires you? 
I am most inspired by litrature, novels, books and always have something on the go. Although I enjoy seeing art it almost feels to close to be inspiring. Whereas a good book, whether it is a novel, theory or more specific interest I always feel excited to feel that I am learning more.

What's the best advice someone has ever given you? 
If a jobs worth doing its worth doing well. (my mum)

What advice would you give someone who is just starting out as an artist?
Be ambitious and proactive and don't wait to be chosen. I think being an artist can be really dis-empowering in some respects as you are always waiting for somebody to notice what you are doing. Don't. Do your own thing, work with friends and make your own thing happen.....If you have a huge idea, try to realise it...it might take years but at least you will feel empowered. Do stuff for free to a point... but also when you have a bit of experience, expect to be paid. If you are contributing something to the 'cultural economy' why should you work for free? Value what you do!

The exhibition Fables from a New World: The Life and Times of TH Thomas as Imagined by Jennie Savage will run from 5 February to 6 April 2011 at Oriel Davies, Newton Powys.

ROLE MODELS

My sister and I were obsessed by the John Waters' film Hairspray when we were growing up: Ricki Lake, Debbie Harry, Divine, big hair and dance routines –  what's not to love.  So I'm looking forward to reading Waters' new book Role Models, in which he writes about the people who have inspired him, including: Johnny Mathis, Comme Des Garcons founder Rei Kawakubo, Tenesse Williams and Cy Twombly.

THRESHOLDS

Photos of the gaps under the doors in our flat:

© Liz Workman

GRACE & FAVOR

A few photos from a new book I am currently making on the empty 'grace and favor' apartments at Hampton Court Palace.