Book Iceland 2018

October 21, 2017

BOOK ICELAND _ JUNE 18 – 29, 2018
Application Deadline: February 1, 2018
www.gullkistan.is/book-iceland

It’s a rare visitor who is not touched by Iceland’s natural energies and diverse landscape. It’s this land of extremes that has shaped its people & language, and has inspired this workshop.

Now more than half-filled, but space available for those interested in exploring Iceland’s
landscape for content— for two book structures that you will learn in the class: the drum-leaf binding and a coptic-bound cover book (examples below).

The workshop is for artists of all levels interested in exploring the book form and learning
about Iceland, its book culture & history, weather, and diverse landscapes.

For specifics, check out: gullkistan.is/book-iceland

*This will be my fourth trip to Iceland. I recently reviewed some old blog entries with early impressions. Thought you might be interested in what I wrote:

“What a deceptively still place with its vast expansive open spaces—panoramic views of horizontal blue ribbons of sky and sea. I sometimes found it difficult to discern the horizon between the two. And I was struck by how much of the land is barren with minimal traces of human habitation.

Iceland is a small country but full of geological wonders that gave me a glimpse of what the earth might have been like when it was newly formed. Everywhere I looked I saw evidence of the new with it lava beds, glaciers, ice, geysers, craggy scree slopes, natural waterfalls, basaltic columns, black sand beaches and glacial carved rocks jetting out from green grass covered mountains. Surreal. I have experienced few places in the world, like Iceland that offer this unique kind of space. Surprisingly serene on the surface, especially when one realizes that it is a land of the verb with underground rumblings of the wild that can spew out at any time as steam, lava or rock through pockets of the earth.

I met a few Icelanders and if they are representative of the whole, then I am impressed. So much open space, yet their connection to their land is intimate. I saw this in the way that they name their places; names with endings like vatn, foss, vik, and jokull that offer clues about the landscape. Their connection went beyond words, however. I witnessed many who embraced the land with vigor and pride, some easily scrambling up a hillside of scree, hiking on the vast lava fields or up a mountain between 1am and 5 am, or swimming in the ice cold waters of lakes and sea. And I identified most with those who relaxed and socialized in the geothermal heated pools, found throughout the country.”

Book Iceland 2018

September 4, 2017

I will be teaching a book arts seminar, BOOK ICELAND, at the Gullkistan
Center for Creativity in Iceland, June 18 - 29, 2018. If interested in
exploring the book form and learning about Iceland—its book culture
and history, weather & diverse landscapes, check out this seminar at
http://www.gullkistan.is/book-iceland/ or click the brochure above.

Art is a Living Thing

November 1, 2016

Wind Egg will be part of NZ Pacific Studio's 15th anniversary exhibition

ART IS A LIVING THING

at the Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art in Masterton, New Zealand

from December 2, 2016 to January 15, 2017

cuts make you. burns too.

August 30, 2016

At the residency, I continued to work with tyvek, a high density synthetic
developed by DuPont in 1955—a 'barrier' material which covers, protects,
resists & stands up to elements, penetrated only through cutting. Inspired
by volcanoes of the Icelandic landscape, I shifted to another process—burning
and discovered that fire doesn't penetrate tyvek; it melts and shapes it.

[video width="202" height="360" m4v="http://www.brookeholve.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/cuts-make-you.-burns-too-Wi-Fi.m4v"][/video]

Gullkistan and the Residents

August 28, 2016

Four years later

returning back to Gullkistan in Laugarvatn,

a new location and accommodations

Eight residents this time: some here longer than others

with the stay group of four:

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I have savored my time here.

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skinningtexts

August 16, 2016

Back to Iceland:

Several years ago on my last trip to IcelandI purchased several kinds of tanned
fish skins including lax (salmon), wolfskin and cod. In New Zealand I purchased
possum skins — all covering materials for my constructions. But as things happen,
these materials took me to a deeper place; they became more than visual textures
from a country. I researched and also found language and stories about the skins.

The fish skins still hang on a line in my studio waiting for a place in my work, serving
as a memory of Iceland and now an inspiration for making my own skins here at the
residency with art materials —fluid acrylics. A few samples are displayed below.
While making them, I started gathering Icelandic & English idioms aboutskins and
in the process found a way to learn about the Icelandic people. Language has
become a skin that captures the character, history and cultural practices of a people.

About the Fish Skins:

I purchased the fish skins at the factory inSandarkrokur that processes up to
200,000 fish skins per year. Once tanned, the skins fromsalmon, wolffish, cod
and perch become strong, durable, thin and pliable — a flexible material to
work with.

Fish skins were used in Iceland for centuries, mainly by those who couldn’t
afford lamb leather. The untanned skin was considered poorer quality because
it was brittle and disintegrated easily. People would measure distance over a
mountain by counting how many pairs of fish skin shoes you would wear walking
over it.

Modern tanning techniques take advantage of fish skin’s unique microscopic
crosshatched pattern. When tanned, it’s stronger than most skin you can get, 10
times stronger than lamb leather of the same thickness.

Icelandic Fish/Skin Idioms: (literal translation and meaning)

pikkur á honum skrápurinn - tough skin; one can endure much

tröfaldur i rođinu - double in your skin; a shady character, two-faced
In English, we might say, "to talk out of both sides of your mouth"
which means you say one thing and mean another and implies
what you say is untruthful and contradictory.

rúginn ađ skinni - only the skin left; money or something lost
In English, we might say "only the shirt on one's back"

vera i ham - to be in a skin; energetically working with a focus

húđlafur - skin lazy; slept in bed all of the time in cow skins

skinniđ mitt - my skin; term of endearment to a child, my little darling

eigi einhamr - not of one skin, or shape

Ađ fara hamförum - to move from one shape to another, to
shape-shift, meaning to go beserk

Researching Icelandic idioms made me think of our own
expressions using skin as an image.

A few below:

skin deep

by the skin of your teeth no skin in the game get the skinny

skinflint

more than one way to skin a cat skinny dipping

skinny shiv

And then there are other kinds of skins, this one from a resident here at Gullkistan.

And and

more skins in Reykjavik:

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To the Westfjords

August 14, 2016

An unexpected and wonderful trip with Aegir and Linda to the Westfjords,
a rugged, desolate & remote, sparsely populated region of Iceland where
fewer tourists venture. Some highlights below:

Kleifakallinn - varda like sculpture who guards travelers

cod heads for the fish soup market in Nigeria

Fall er fararheill to the Westfjords

August 14, 2016

There is an Icelandic saying "fall er fararheill" which means if something bad happens at the beginning of the trip, the rest will be great. This was our experience setting out for our unexpected adventure to the Westfjords. The rented SUV tire exploded minutes up the road from Gullkistan in Laugarvatn (where the residency is).

here(t)here continued:

November 8, 2015

Beginnings: In Cuts Make You, I introduced prime numbers as a way to structure the series. With the wide open schedule of the residency here at the Lucid Art Foundation, I applied this way to structure a working routine. The vastness of 21 free days in the wilderness of Gordon Onslow Ford land was daunting. (Above: Gordon Onslow Ford, Present in Company, 1969. Acrylic/Linen, 93 x 140 inches)

So, when in doubt, resort to the prime. A schedule enveloped:

Oct 20: day 1 Catch Oct 21: day 2 Catch Oct 22: day 3 Catch Oct 23: day 4 Construct Oct 24: day 5 Catch Oct 25: day 6 Construct Oct 26: day 7 Catch Oct 27: day 8 Construct Oct 28: day 9 Construct Oct 29: day 10 Construct Oct 30: day 11 Catch Oct 31: day 12 Construct Nov 1: day 13 Catch Nov 2: day 14 Construct Nov 3: day 15 Construct Nov 4: day 16 Construct Nov 5: day 17 Catch Nov 6: day 18 Construct Nov 7: day 19 Catch Nov 8: day 20 Construct Nov 9: day 21 Construct November tenth: departure and return home

And an envelope to be ripped? And it was!

Thoughts Before about Place:

An exploration of this place as opposed to that place; seeking a particular type of relationship to it that connects to the other. I returned from Iceland with many impressions and thoughts about the place. What happens to these thoughts in a place close to home?

So these are some of the things that happened: At the residency, I disrupted existing conventional forms to find new shapes using natural & temporal elements.

1970s Vintage Development Maps of Pt. Reyes Peninsula: Acquired from Eleanor Murray's collection, I brought them to Inverness to reference the location of the residency. Not knowing what I would do with them, I first made rough cuts (and secondary cuts) into each to approximate the shape and sections of the studio. Then I established a visual line on the walls using masking tape. Waited. Thoughts about tectonic plates and the fault lines of Iceland and Pt. Reyes directed me. Breaking up the conventional forms of the maps became a side project during the residency while I worked on constructions using book parts and wondering how this exercise will influence my constructions. I will take the maps home to continue this process and see what happens.