Harbouring Histories

Old girls:) ... This refers to the paper that was used...

All of a sudden I am on this mission to find interesting paper. This morning I found some old books with nice paper for printing on. Two of them are dictionaries and one is a book of logarithmic tables.... lots of numbers to print on... to juxtapose the calculating and the feeling...

Anyway ... in one of the books I found a few well worn pages with some prayers and instructions typed on them. On the reverse it said 'St. John's Old Girls Association (Durban branch) and it had beautifully ragged edges... so that is what the pieces of paper are...

In the meantime the Fine Art and Jewellery department is organising an exhibition inconjunction with the same department from Curtin University of Technology in Perth and the theme is 'Harbouring Histories'. I had already done a print for the exhibition but I think this is a lot more appropriate ... so I'll be submitting it instead...

The middle one... It has connotations of change...  different ways of defining women over time... maybe it should be the other way around though, but no ... women used to be more clearly defined, have more clearly defined roles, whereas now they are defined differently... They still look the same but are defined by what is around them... the connotations and stereotypes...

Jane Eyre print

Close up ... with date stamp

Is it apparent that the image is made up of separate pieces around the face... The surrounding pieces define the face... Is that not how one is defined? by what goes on around you? or is it just women?

Jane Eyre ... 1st set

This is the first set of prints. The idea is to do a set at a time, so I can date them and put them in a photo album for storage.

I quite like the ordering and organising process... it adds a lot of thought to what one is doing. You need to get ready and prepare... It is a bit like a campaign... Is that maybe how one should approach a woman... as a campaign?

Titles and meanings

Listening to the radio ... Freek Robinson ... saying ' by uitstek geskik' (eminently suitable... or just suitable) sounds like a good label/title to use....

even just 'geskik' which is a bit more ordinary and relates to the prints I do that aren't perfect, which would be 'ordinary' kind of awards, like sort-of-awards... where the 'thought is what counts', which is kind-of how women are treated...

this is quite 'thick' it shows the deeper meanings I'm working with... Imagine getting an award for being 'suitable'... sounds a bit Monty Pythonesque

So maybe I could weather (like I've been doing for 'Harbouring Histories) the 'bad' prints even more and then fix/improve/rejuvenate them for actual use... this would add the 'just suitable' aspect to the prints...

It is, after all, the thought that counts (isn't it?) ?!?

Another title/word that I heard on the radio is 'stilstuipe' which means a silent convulsion (I think) ... one of womens' virtues, their ability to have these :-) (thank god for emoticons)

Cameos

Trying some new combinations...

Mixing embossing and printing... look at the cameo being embossed, which actually focusses attention on it ... lends it self to a comment about the woman being nearly invisible or only just there... or being textured/rough