A DECK OF SALVAGED RELATIVES

UNIQUE STATEARTISTS' BOOKS
Written By Gracia Louise
 

In a borrowed costume from Pulcinella, deigned by Giorgio de Chirico, 1932, with a Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae) looking to form a charm and others

 
 
 

Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison
A Deck of Salvaged Relatives
2015

Artists’ book, unique state, featuring 26 individual collages on carte de visite with pencil and paint additions (by Gracia Haby) with 26 accompanying lino print title cards, housed in a red cloth Solander box (bound by Louise Jennison) with inlaid collages

 
 
 

Within a 13cm X 17cm X 5cm red Solander box, a deck of costumed Salvaged Relatives and their corresponding title cards can be found. Alongside Following the soft percussion of your tread, it was made with the National Gallery of Victoria’s inaugural Melbourne Art Book Fair in mind. And just like the Salvaged Relatives on cabinet cards, the unknown characters sport costumes from the Ballet Russes.

This artists’ book was one of forty-two works shortlisted for the 2015 Geelong acquisitive print awards. It was on display at Geelong Gallery in August through to November, 2015, and is now in the collection of State Library Victoria.

It was exhibited late 2017 as part of the touring exhibition, Self-made: zines and artist books, in the Blue Rotunda, Cowen Gallery, at the State Library Victoria, alongside related zines in both the cabinet and reading library. The exhibition,Self-made, toured until early 2020.

 
 

1. In a borrowed costume from Pulcinella, deigned by Giorgio de Chirico, 1932, with a male ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris)
2. In the borrowed jacket from The hunt, Act I, Giselle, designed by Alexandre Benois, c 1910, with a Linnaeus’s mouse opossum (Marmosa murina) and an oriental bay owl (Phodilus badius)
3. In a borrowed costume from Pulcinella, deigned by Giorgio de Chirico, 1932, with a Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae) looking to form a charm
4. In the borrowed costume for a Greek from Cleopatra, designed by Léon Bakst, c 1909, with a Ruby-topaz hummingbird (Chrysolampis mosquitus)
5. In the borrowed costume for Shah-Zeman from Schéhérazade’s drama in one act, designed by Léon Bakst, 1910–30s, with a Blue-faced Parrot Finch (Erythrura trichroa)
6. In the borrowed costume for a soldier from Chout, designed by Mikhail Larionov, c 1921, with a male Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae)
7. In the borrowed costume for the Chief Eunich from Schéhérazade’s drama in one act, designed by Léon Bakst, 1910, with a Red kangaroo (Macropus rufus)
8. In the borrowed costume for a Lady in the pantomime-ballet in one act Carnival, designed by Léon Bakst, c 1920, with a Flightless cormorant (Phalacrocorax harrisi)
9. In the modified costume for an attendant of Köstchei from the Fantastic ballet in one act, The Firebird, designed by Aleksander Golovin and Léon Bakst, 1910, with a Slow loris (Nycticebus) and Karoo bush rat (Myotomys unisulcatus)
10. In the borrowed costume for Pierrot from Carnival, designed by Léon Bakst, c 1910, with a Eurasian harvest mouse (Micromys minutus) and a Fawn-footed mosaic-tailed rat (Melomys cervinipes)
11. In the borrowed costume for a female worker from Step of steel, designed by Georgy Yakulov, c 1927, with a Brown mouse lemur (Microcebus rufus) and a Horsfield’s tarsier (Cephalopachus bancanus)
12. In the modified costume for the Bluebird from the ballet in three acts and five scenes, The seeping princess, designed by Léon Bakst, c 1921
13. Beneath the wings, in the modified costume for a musician from the ballet in one act, Armida’s pavilion, designed by Alexandre Benois, c 1909, with a Frilled coquette (Lophornis magnificus) and a Bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae)
14. In the borrowed costume for a Jew from Cleopatra, designed by Léon Bakst, c 1909–20s, with a Monitos del monte (Dromiciops gliroides) in two parts
15. In the modified costume for a mourner from the Choreographic poem in one act, The song of the nightingale, designed by Henri Matisse, c 1920, with a charm of hummingbirds
16. In the borrowed costume for a Polovtsian warrior from The Polovtsian dances from Prince Igor, designed by Nicholas Roerich, c 1909–37, with a Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)
17. Beneath the curtain, in the modified costume for a street sweeper from Jardin public, designed by Jean Lurçat, 1935
18. In the borrowed costume for the finale from The Firebird, designed by Natalia Goncharova, c 1926 , with a Sea otter (Enhydra lutris)
19. In the borrowed costume for a court lady from the ballet in three acts and five scenes, The sleeping princess, designed by Léon Bakst, c 1921, with a Strawberry finch (Amandava amandava)
20. In the borrowed costume for the Buffoon’s Wife from Chout, designed by Mikhail Larionov, c 1921, with a concealed Grey Slender Loris (Loris lydekkerianus) and a Queensland blossom bat (Syconycteris australis)
21. In the modified costumed for a Syrian woman from Cleopatra, designed by Léon Bakst, 1909 and 1930s, a Marvellous spatuletail (Loddigesia mirabilis)
22. In the borrowed cloak for a harpist from the ballet in one act, Armida’s pavilion, designed by Alexandre Benois, c 1909, with a Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) on guard
23. In the modified costume for the page to the Hummingbird Fairy from the ballet in three acts and five scenes, The seeping princess, designed by Léon Bakst, c 1921, with a Brown falcon (Falco berigora)
24. In the borrowed costume for one of the three brigands from Daphnis and Chloë, a choreographic symphony on three acts, designed by Léon Bakst, c 1912, with a Cape Lopez lyretail (Aphyosemion australe) and a Planehead filefish (Stephanolepis hispidus)
25. In the borrowed headdress for a dancing girl or odalisque from Schéhérazade’s drama in one act, designed by Léon Bakst, 1910, with a Potto (Perodicticus potto)
26. In the modified costume for the Countess from the ballet in one act, The temptations of the shepherdess (or L’Amour vainqueur), designed by Juan Gris, c 1924, with a Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)

 
 
 
 
Three related Relatives were created especially for Port Jackson Press Print Gallery's winter salon exhibition in 2015.
 
 

Contemporary book design panel discussion

To play: Contemporary book design panel discussion, at State Library Victoria, recorded Wednesday 13th of May, 2015

Watch our panel of experts as they discuss the most interesting and challenging aspects of contemporary book design, and the multitude of messages that a design can convey. Coinciding with our Inspiration by Design: Word and Image from the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition, and held during Melbourne International Design Week 2015, this compelling discussion looks at contemporary book art, graphics, typography and illustration from the viewpoint of designers, artists and collaborators.

Chaired by illustrator and cartoonist Oslo Davis, the panellists include:

  • award-winning Slovenian graphic designer, illustrator and professor Radovan Jenko, who helped found Slovenia’s Brumen Foundation for promoting visual communications

  • Melbourne artists Gracia and Louise, who collaborate to create whimsical collage, paper art and artists’ books

  • Swiss designer Flavia Cocchi, who worked with design greats Werner Jeker and Benetton’s Massimo Vignelli early in her career and has gone on to design for artists, architects and cultural institutions across Europe, including the Louvre

  • designer and academic Stuart Geddes, who ran the Melbourne design studio Chase & Galley and has an impressive reputation for his unique design and font work in print publications

 
 
Gracia Louise http://gracialouise.com
Previous

FIVE ZINES, 2015
Next

FIVE FOLDED ZINES, 2015