Opening a Book Exhibition Photos

THE LAND/gallery, Albuquerque, April 2009

Basia Irland (foreground), installation view

Basia Irland

Abigail Doan

Kathy Bruce

Mary Ellen Long

Mary Ellen Long

Curator notes, Jeffrey A. Lee

THE BOOK is, then, the container of provocation.[1]

Consider a book as a sequence (of texts, images, objects, ideas) bound or otherwise contained so that it’s kept together and in order. The binding or container also preserves its contents.

The book for me should be without limits, like the desert, thus an exploded book… a desert form whose only limits are the four horizons.[2]

Consider the sequence of seasons, of growth and perpetuation, of metamorphosis, or any other natural sequence. What binds it together or contains it? What preserves it? What interrupts or disturbs it, and what are the consequences?

Books, like ecologies, are local systems. Like an ecosystem, any part removed from a book compromises the whole. Unlike an ecosystem, anything put into a book can belong there.

THE SPACE we love is unwilling to remain permanently enclosed. It deploys and appears to move elsewhere without difficulty…[3]

I know from my experience that books ultimately convey their own unspeakable language to the solitary reader.[4]

A book is a sequence of spaces.[5]

[1] Dick Higgins
[2] Edmond Jabès
[3] Gaston Bachelard
[4] Harry Reese
[5] Ulises Carrión

Seasonal Shades Preview

My fiber enviro-book project, Seasonal Shades, is ready to travel out west to The LAND/an art site's gallery in Albuquerque, NM. Opening a Book opens Saturday, April 4, from 6pm - 9pm. 

Connectivity and Crafting Residency

Landviews.org is an online journal and dedicated network of artists, architects, designers, and ecologists working in and for the landscape. 

They are currently featuring my article, Returning to and from THE LAND: Connectivity and Crafting Residency, a follow up to my September 2006 artist residency in rural New Mexico.

Knit Knit 7 | Lacemaking & Placemaking

Knit Knit, the biannual publication dedicated to the intersection of traditional handcraft and contemporary art, now has Issue 7 available online and in select museum, knitting, and book shops. The format of this latest edition is a newspaper - a leaflet manifesto of sorts. 

The lineup of articles include contributors Trevor Pitt, Lisa Anne Auerbach, Liz Collins, Allison Smith, Emily Drury, Danica Maier, Cat Mazza, Elizabeth O'Donnell, and Veronica Wiman. My article is called, 'Lacemaking and Placemaking', in conjunction with the current exhibit, 'Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting' at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC.

On Ice Exhibition | Field Report

I am currently participating in a group show called "On Ice" at the Williams Center Art Gallery at Lafayette College in Easton, PA. The exhibit, which runs from early January through February 11, 2007, was curated by the multimedia artist Kathy Bruce. What I love about this show is the selfless, warm synergy between artists and scientists. Some of the pieces employ ice as a medium, while others examine its fragility, resiliency, and its role as a harbinger of environmental instability.



Stacy Levy's "Ice Clock" is a constant reminder of the passage of time, the race for global solutions, and the impact of our often land-locked decisions on the both immediate future and our long-range view.



Buzz Spector's, "Freeze Freud" (2001), a dye infusion POLAROID print, penetrates the layers of the psyche and humanity's permafrost-stasis and goads us into considering how long our sentiments and possessions can be archived and stored.


Not pictured in this report is the remarkable Ice Cello performance video by Joan Jeanrenaud, Tara O'Brien's ice book, "Natural Elements", and Marshall Reese's political commentary, time-lapse video called, "The State of Things", in which the word democracy is sculpted and then melts, cracks, and slowly dissolves before the viewer's gaze. Many wonderful artists, writers, book makers, photographers, and scientists contributed to this exhibition effort. Kathy Bruce, the curator, and Michiko Okaya, the gallery director, have really set up an (ice) flow of related activities and lectures as well.


On Monday, January 29 at 8pm, the ornithologist Dr. George Divorsky of The University of Alaska at Fairbanks will speak at Lafayette College on "Watching the Arctic Melt Away: Three Decades of Change from a Warming Globe".


Crocheted Snow 03, fiber, ice, and vegetation, Abigail Doan (2006)

Go to The Williams Center Art Gallery website for more information:
http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~artscntr/williams/wms_art_gall.php#Ice

All of the above images were taken by Abigail Doan