Unwrapping Books

In 2010,  I was part of the show Unwrapping Books : rearranging formulae, curated by Metron.
Science and maths books, ranging from primary to academic texts, and journals were selected and donated by Oxford University Press.
A number was allocated to each book, and these were wrapped and distributed to twenty- seven artists who had been invited to respond in any way they chose.
The exhibition was held in the 03 Gallery in March 2010, and reconfigured in the public space in OUP in October .

This year, Unwrapping Books will be based at The Botanic Gardens, Oxford. This will coincide with  Oxford's World Book Capital bid. The final works by 30 artists (including visual artists, dancers and musicians) will come together at The Botanic Gardens in April 2014.

For more info see:
 http://unwrappingbooks.info/#/oxford-botanic-gardens/4560059824

Articles from The Garden and The Gardening Chronicles are the inspiration for the artists to respond to. Each artist and article was allocated a number, these numbers were drawn from a hat to connect the artist with their piece if text.

The Articles

The articles which have been selected for me are:

Entomology - The Green-rose chafer or cetonia aurata
The Gardener's Chronicle - 1841
Pg. 452

and

Watering in dry weather
The Garden - 1881
Pg. 632

I'm looking forward to researching both of these subjects. Hopefully it will give me the opportunity to develop some techniques.

finished amulets

  Continuing from The Small Blessings http://pittrivers-amulets.blogspot.co.uk/project at The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, I went on to finish off some of the amulets which I started during the project. I have also made a few new ones.
To give the finished amulets a feeling of belonging to the permanent collections, they were all hand labeled and numbered.

plaster, gold and silver leaf

plaster, metal matchbox holder

aluminium, crystal bead, leather

embroidered wool purse, leather, donkey hair, found objects

aluminium, stone, leather

beeswax, plaster, thread, paper

copper, found objects, knitted purse

plaster, gold and silver leaf

Beeswax, plaster and pins

The labels were edged with aluminium and copper, to give a similar feel to the labels in the museum. All the specimens from the project have gone through conservation to check for any infestation and put through the deep freeze. This will protect objects in the museum from potential contamination.

Working on this unique project has inspired my work a great deal. It has led me to try out new techniques, such as mould making and casting and also to consider ways of presenting my work.
Hopefully I will continue to develop some of these ideas in my future work.