New Artists Book, Fragments of Blue and White

I have been working on some more Artists Books, since being on a writing course based in The Museum of London. I have been wanting to write more and combine my writing and art forms for some time now, and the course has been really good in terms of encouragement, our tutor Elizabeth Sarkany is really expert at encouraging and developing our writing skills, using the museums collections as a resource. Link to the course here



I used the collection of broken pottery, from an old victorian tip, that is inset in the floor of the museum,as inpiration for my artists book Fragments of Blue and White. I used to collect pieces of pottery from the banks of the river Severn in Ironbridge as a child. There were potteries on the site including Caughley and Coalport. I also used to collect blue and white china including the famous Willow Pattern, which is still popular as a design.


I decided to re-tell the story associated with the Willow Pattern design and include a story from the potteries that used to make the china in Victorian England. I had painted the willow pattern design as two oval pictures and cut them up into fragments on which I wrote the stories. The fragments are in a found box decorated with the china from the tip, which I had taken phorographs of.

I am in the process of printing the handwritten text and pictures so that I can offer the book for sale.

Darren Almond Fire under Snow.

On a very wet and windy morning I went out to find the Parasol Unit Foundation for contemporary art. They are showing a selection of Darren Almonds work till 30th March, and I wanted to see his film In The Between. It is a 3 screen piece filmed in China and Tibet. The central screen shows Tibetan monks in Samye monastery the oldest monastery in Lhasa, at practice, chanting and sounding traditional instruments. The other 2 screens either side are showing prayer flags, views from the bullet train window of the new Chinese railway that runs across the highest plateau in the world,from China to Tibet and shots of the train.

Unfortunately this railway has been put through without consulting the Tibetan people, or looking at the environmental aspects of such a huge project. This railway, which the Chinese want to extend, strengthens Chinese military and political grip on Tibet. So I watched the film with a sense of profound sadness, is all the potential destruction of Tibet and it's people inevitable?