INTRODUCTION

Faces, Spaces and Tenuous Places explores portraits of people and portrayals of place and space. The book artists use the structure and materiality of the book and the carefully composed images to reveal not only the state of person or place, but also the artists’ personal appreciation of and attitude to their theme.

As well as the bookworks that expose the underbelly of tense times and awkward situations, as in Judith Mason’s A Troyeville Diary, there are counterpoints of amusing books, such as Almost Cut my Meds by Fred Rinne, and the poetic visions found in Narcissus by Barry Moser.

In all of the works, the role of colour and tonality is key; holding power and impacting our moods and emotions. Empty spaces, image to page proportion, and the density and clarity of image and text also become creative devices to signal intent.

This exhibition reinforces the critical role of image choice and manipulation, and book art materials and techniques in evoking emotion.

What is affect?

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin affectus “acted upon, subjected to; mental or emotional state” (past participle and action noun of afficere), equivalent to af- “toward” + fec- (combining form of facere “to make, do”) + -tus action noun suffix or -tus past participle suffix; see af-

Used as a verb (in relation to an object – the bookworks and/or images on the exhibition), the term means: ‘to act on; produce an effect or change in an observer’. It also means ‘to impress the mind or move the feelings of the observer’.

As a noun it is used to express the psychology of feeling or emotion generally, and as an expressed or observed emotional response.

The curators have chosen books or particular openings in books that seem to promote or induce affective responses to the subjects depicted. These books or page-openings evoked a ‘pang’ when first encountered and were thus chosen for display. It is this experience – depicted through images of portraits and the body; places, environments and spaces – that the curators wish to share in this diverse exhibition.

COVER IMAGE

Andromeda Imagined
Charles Hobson
IRIS prints from mixed media drawings, found illustrations and paper punching
1998

The stars provide a pattern – once one point is fixed, it can be used to mark another. As the pattern emerges it gradually broadens and strengthens; and while completely arbitrary, it offers guidance – a way to navigate. In a more complex way, the Greek myths represent a way of charting or dealing with puzzling and unknown aspects of life – animal urges and sexuality, the vagaries of the seasons (flood and drought, for example) human frailty, heroism, altruism, insoluble dilemmas – the capriciousness of life. In this book, Hobson juxtaposes drawings from the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. On the left are illustrations made in 1690 for the star atlas of Johannes Helvelius. Opposite them, are the artist’s own figure studies. Each carries the shape of the constellation from the Andromeda myth but in different ways. The star pattern has been punched in the Helvelius figures. And, if you read the book with a strong lamp over your left shoulder, the shape of the constellation will also be cast on the figure drawings. This book is read on top of Sergej Vutuc’s Čista Zona / (see entry #04 in the Exhibition Supplement).