Cuts Make You.
2016.
Six Artist Books* with pamphlet covers in clamshell box: letterpress and die cut on tyvek and vellum papers with masking tape, inks, and photographs.
Clamshell Box: 9 x 13 x 3.67 inches.
Pamphlet Cover: 7 x 8 x .25 inches.
Each book: 5.75 x 7.25 x .25 inches.
cuts make you. represents a process of reflection that Brooke engaged in after her solo exhibition, cuttings, at the Risk Press Gallery in Sebastopol. The exhibit of mixed media constructions and artist books explored ‘cutting’ as process and form and was informed by the changing role of the book in the digital world. The exploration evolved into *six artist books, each representing a particular ‘cut’ or detail from and about the exhibition.
How it started:
For the exhibition, Brooke installed an empty roll of tyvek, inviting those who attended to mark it with blue masking tape and blue ink pens. Upon closing, the unfurling revealed a motley but contained collection of writing, scribbles, lines, tape and words. These materials and marks became the prima materia for cuts make you.
Upon the closing of the exhibit and following the directive of the exhibit name, Cuttings, Brooke cut up, printed upon and cut into the scroll, applying the similar methods that attendees used during the exhibit. Applying tape randomly to the surfaces, she printed over it with a die cut of the floor plan of the gallery to reference the place of the exhibit. Over and on the masked tyvek, she printed to cut out new spaces. Cutting and printing generated pages and ideas. The result is a series of books that hold and reference the archival and ephemeral of the exhibit.
* Six Artist Books:
Book 0: OBLIQUE STRATEGIES:
Instructs a process, a way of thinking & working with materials & tools.
When in doubt, cut.
Materials & process are content.
A place provides a context for search.
The incidental is as important as the intentional.
Constrain to define to flow.
Book 2: IN.STALLS EXHIBIT
Mixed media constructions, installation & artist books at Risk Press Gallery,
Sebastopol, CA 2013. Rectangular with a wall of windows, the gallery looks out
to light lines of speeding cars; behind is the stump of an old oak tree, cut prior
to the opening.
Book 3: AT.TENDS (to a cut)
Materials & Process: A die cut of the gallery schematic used to reference
place, was printed on masked tyvek to cut out space.
Tyvek: A 'barrier' material which covers, protects, resists & stands up to
elements, penetrated only through cutting. A high density synthetic
developed by DuPont in 1955.
Masking Tape: A less aggressive adhesive invented by Richard Drew in
1925 used to cut out sections of the schematic while printing.
Book 5: O.PENS_C.LOSES; marking time with prime cuts
Represents the marking of time of the exhibit, Cuttings, from its opening to
its closing using a progression of prime numbers from 2 - 61. Each number
determined the amount of masking tape used to 'cut out' the schematic while
printing.
Book 7 & 11: POETRY
While printing the books, I squashed some of the type. Emotions of shame
surfaced taking me back to my youth in Catholic school. A poem came.
T HERE are things
that, we like that, we like cut
like the fact. that we like facts
cut cut facts cut that we like cut
that we don't like cut facts
that we don't like
cut that. we like cut
But there are things we don't like
that we don't like cut
poignant and felt
since we don't understand
don't cut. cut.
Book 13: ATH'WART;
Ath’wart honors the role of mistakes and the opportunities offered while working.
a word voiced
a.thwart the
winds of Eldd.
