POSTCARDS
FROM OTHER WORLDS
The eloquent page: The National Library of Australia's fringe publishing
blog
Melissa Caden
Delving into the special collections of a library like the NLA, you
can discover fascinating remnants from other times and places. To give
you just a peek, you may discover the earliest
piece of surviving Australian printed material, old photographs,
or items of ephemera like postcards, political pamphlets, an 1897
dinner menu (Library conferences looked a little more elegant back
then!), a dance card from the 1923
Canberra Bachelor's Ball, a travel
poster from 1936 — or even a circa 1914 advertising poster
for a
Schweppes orange drink! As the term 'ephemera' suggests, the beauty
of these items is that many were never intended to be kept — yet
over the years, many have found their way to collecting institutions
such as the National Library where they now serve as a visual, tactile
and endlessly captivating insight into our social and political history.
But it seems that serving as historical snippets
is not to be the only fate for an ephemera item! A few days ago I was
lucky enough to encounter some
zines by Gracia Haby, who often collaborates with Louise
Jennison to create all sorts of things on paper; the 3 zines on
my desk just happen to incorporate one of the most varied and personal
forms of ephemera — the travel postcard — into a zine!
Gracia Haby has created a series of zines based on several
of her exhibitions at Imp Gallery (Melbourne)
featuring quirky postcard collages exploring the types of fantastical,
imaginary worlds you dreamt of in childhood. Haby collects old travel
postcards from around the world and through collage turns them into
surreal, unpredictable and nostalgic creations. The pages of her zines
are replete with curious turtles, proud Emperor Penguins, mice, exotic
birds, intrepid seals and the odd aardvark or adventurous meerkat peregrinating
around the world — and more often than not they find themselves
in the most perplexing of locations!
Created in limited editions of 60, these zines are charming, dreamy
and fanciful, and both zine and individual images are paired with wonderfully
wordy, beguiling titles such as But for the moon nobody could see
us, A trapdoor in every room and If we stand very
still, no one will notice.
Postcards from… A trapdoor
in every room (2007) is a 14 x 9 cm black and white laser-copy
zine secured at the top by a gold paper fastener, allowing the reader
to open and view the pages in a fan-like formation, or flip through
them in the hand as you would a pile of old photographs or postcards.
Expect to encounter a penguin peering through a second-story window
in the streets of Milan, or a
yellow mud turtle on a pilgrimage to Tellskapelle, Switzerland (where
William Tell famously escaped the boat of his captors).
Postcards from… If we stand very still,
no one will notice (2007, 14 x 9 cm) is created in the same
format. Haby's paper animals explore new landscapes glittering with
jewels, whilst seeming to ponder the themes of displacement, transition
and their place in the environs.
Postcards from… But for the moon, nobody could see us
(2008, 10.5 x 15 cm) is bound in a traditional book format and features
both colour and black and white reproductions of Haby's postcard collage.
I loved this zine, as our gallant animal travellers appear to experience
all that we feel when we travel far from home —
the joy of discovery, the frustration (yet possibility!) of being lost
in unknown places, the epiphanies and revelations, and even the alienation
and loneliness you can feel in foreign lands.
The National Library has a range of artists' books and zines made by
Haby, which you can check out in our catalogue. You can also view Gracia
Haby and Louise Jennison's world by dropping by their website
for a peek at colour images of their artists' books and zines. Or perhaps
you would rather rummage through the National Library's ephemera
collections yourself? Explore, and see what you can find!
Melissa Caden, 2011
The
eloquent page: The National Library of Australia's fringe publishing
blog
Gracia
Haby
With
a certain sense of security, the swamp wallaby paused and took in his
new surrounds
2011
postcard collage
