MANY AS ONE - Artwork for Christchurch

2000 CIRCLES - Martin Hill in collaboration with Philippa Jones

2011-04-18T12:11:00.000-07:00

2000 Circles - Martin Hill with Philippa Jones

Framed lambda print of a work made as part of a millennium series.

1/100 edition. Framed size: 580 x 430mm

"2000 Circles was constructed from snow on Mt Ruapehu, an active volcano on New Zealand's North Island. 2000 circular holes were made in the frozen sculpture referring to the earth's 2000 revolutions round the sun."

Martin Hill is a mountain climber and environmental artist who for two decades - often in collaboration with his partner Philippa Jones - has made ephemeral sculptures from natural materials found in the environment to which they return. His work is concerned with achieving ecological sustainability by redesigning human systems so that they are compatible with those of nature.

His photographs of the sculptures are exhibited, published and collected internationally.

"My goal is to further develop my art practice and body of work; to complete The Fine Line Global environmental art project; to collaborate with others and create art and communications projects that foster change for a sustainable future".

A few words about The Fine Line global project -

"12 climbs to make 12 sculptures linked by a line encircling the earth. Each sculpture is made from natural materials found at the site, which return harmlessly to nature.
The first and the last sculpture will be made in New Zealand on the same summit.
Documented with video and photography, the project explores how eco-literacy is inspiring the redesign of industrial products and processes to align with nature."

Why so many circles?

"The form of the sculptures metaphorically expresses our concern for the interconnectedness of all living systems. The use of the circle refers to nature's cyclical system which is now being used as a model for industrial ecology. Sustainability will be achieved by redesigning products and industrial processes as closed loops - materials that can't safely be retuned to nature will be continually turned into new products. Of course this is only one part of the redesign process. We need to use renewable energy, eliminate all poisonous chemicals, use fair trade and create social equity."

www.martin-hill.com

MUNTED - Handmade book by Meliors Simms & Bethwyn Littler

2011-04-09T16:08:00.000-07:00

Today, I have the great privilege of showcasing a powerful and affecting work made by North Island artists, Melior Simms and Bethwyn Littler. Munted is their heartfelt response to the Christchurch earthquake and I am grateful to Meliors and Bethwyn for offering this handmade book - an especially meaningful chronicle of these times - to MANY AS ONE.

A few words from Meliors. . . "The word 'munted' is a wonderfully dry kiwi colloquialism for 'broken' and has become widely used even in formal situations to describe the infrastructure damage caused by the earthquake.

Bethwyn and I offer this collaged book with heartfelt compassion, respect and sympathy for everyone who survived that awful day. It is not our tragedy to describe, but we hope that by bearing witness we can contribute in some tiny way to the recovery process."

"Today Bethwyn and I met up for a Frugal with the Bruegel session of collaborative altered book making, our first in many weeks. We spontaneously decided to devote our session to working together on a single book, responding to the Christchurch earthquake. Without any particular preparation or planning, we began making a book which may turn out to be our most coherent narrative yet. Drawing only on our collection of old (mostly) children's books, which includes nothing specific to Christchurch, yet the result feels to us very evocative of our emotional response witnessing the earthquake from a distance.

Making this book feels cathartic and healing: a compulsion to channel survivors' guilt, grief and helplessness into creativity. Working with focus and synchronicity we got about half way through the project this afternoon and hope to have it finished in our next session, ready to auction off as a fundraiser for a Christchurch earthquake response fund. . . " from Melior's blog entry, Rapid Response.

Melior's blog - Bibliophilia

"Like many. . . outside of Christchurch, I have developed a profound sense of appreciation for my flushing toilet, hot shower, endless drinking water, electric power, cosy bed, smooth streets, sweet fresh air, fully serviced city and most of all, the solid ground beneath my feet. It may be a while before everyone in Christchurch can enjoy such amenities again. Bethwyn and I hope that our book can provide some small contribution towards Christchurch's recovery. . "

MoA update vii

2011-04-03T16:01:00.000-07:00

Four names were drawn from the MANY AS ONE hat this morning - - - Melissa Green's signed imprint of her first collection of poetry The Squanicook Eclogues will soon be on its way to a Dunedin poet (who I know will be thrilled when she hears her name was drawn with Melissa's)

Australian artist Lisa Robert's delicately engraved perspex artwork titled Coccoliths: carbon sequesterers has been paired with a Dunedin crime writer, who also happens to have a soft-spot for uni-cellular creatures (why, she even included a foraminiferan in one of her novels?!)

Thank you, LR, MG, EN & VS!

Oh, and do keep an eye on the site - - - I will be posting another rare and collectible new artwork here in the next day or two. . .

Everything We Hoped For - Pip Adam

2011-03-31T19:56:00.000-07:00

Everything We Hoped For is an unusually strong first book, distinguished by an exquisitely crafted surface and barely contained emotional force. A young mother in shocked contemplation of her new baby and young women in rehab and jail feature in mostly short and oblique stories which echo and connect with cumulative power. A broad range of other characters, including a NZ serviceman returned from active duty in Dili, the employees of a $2 Shop and a vegan couple at a Samoan resort complete an impressive contemporary canvas. " (from the Victoria University Press website)

Pip Adam gained an MA in Creative Writing with Distinction from Victoria University in 2007, and is currently enrolled for a PhD. Her work has appeared in Sport, Glottis, Turbine, Lumière Reader, Hue & Cry and Blackmail Press.

Thank you for contributing this collection of fine writing to the MaO appeal, Pip.

Fresh Start

2011-03-30T15:13:00.000-07:00

Hi there - and thank you for coming. . . For a number of reasons I've decided to transfer all MANY AS ONE postings from my personal blog '. . . All finite things reveal infinitude. . .' to this new, dedicated site.

MaO Hat

To view the growing list of artworks and other items, please visit the STOCK ROOM.

To make a non-financial contribution to MaO, please email me on clarab@earthlight.co.nz

and for financial donations, please click on the orange donate button to the right of this page. All contributors' names will go directly into the MaO hat and stand an equal chance of being drawn each week. All monies raised will be gifted to the Christchurch Mayoral Fund for the purpose of assisting the city in its ongoing recovery.

Many thanks for your generosity.

PS. If anything's unclear re; how this all works, please click here to visit the first MaO post or feel free to leave me a question in the comments thread. . . ; )

Book Matters i

2011-03-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

Yes, book matters 

and

books matter. 

Today's post draws attention to four new items that have just come in for MaO. . .  four very different books by five unique artists and writers. . . 

Scottish artist Joanne B. Kaar developed a link to New Zealand through the historically-based project Westland (includes a beautiful paper boat project) that she undertook with Dunedin artist, Lynn Taylor.  Joanne has very kindly donated one of her handmade books to support MANY AS ONE. Fantastic, Joanne - many thanks!

Joanne has been self-employed since graduating with an MA from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1992 and continues to experiment with fibre arts, particularly papermaking by hand. This exquisite book Croft work: Beaters, Brushes + Toasting Forks (185 x 660) relates to items found in William Young's family croft-house (Mary-Ann's cottage) in Dunnet, Caithness, Scotland. 

For more info on Joanne's work and the Mary-Ann's cottage project, visit http://joannebkaar-mary-anns-cottage.blogspot.com/  
and
http://www.joannebkaar.com/

AND

Melissa Green has generously offered us a signed, rare imprint of her first collection of poems, The Squanicook Eclogues (Pen & Anvil. These are not easy to come by; I ordered what appeared to be one of the few remaining copies through Amazon about a year ago, within days of coming upon Vesper Sparrow's Nest.) With characteristic humility, she writes. . ."It was my first book, written in my twenties. The Squanicook is a little river that has its source on the hill and granite quarry where I grew up. It always thrilled me to think that little, slow, chirpling riverlet would join others and one day reach the sea. It connected me thus to reverence and joy."

A little web research led to the following comments on this very fine early collection, "Here, by the grace and wisdom of the language in which rhyme rhymes with time, comes the poet who commits everything she touches to your memory ... In these eclogues, the New England flora seems to have finally acquired the power of speech." Joseph Brodsky.
"Responsibility and delight are the tone of the true poet, a joy in the craft that supercedes its themes, however afflicted, and on every page of this book Melissa Green's reverential elations uplift and soothe the reader as naturally and cleanly as the morning wind." Derek Walcott.
"No other young poet is so contented, so thrilled, merely to catalogue nature's changes, or to craft them into a deliberately turned formal verse that takes an almost shocked delight in its own daring." William Logan, The New York Times.

Thank you, Melissa.

Book matters ii

2011-03-30T12:59:00.001-07:00

We also have three books by well-known New Zealand writers, Maxine Alterio and Penelope Todd.

"Reflecting absolutely its title, Ribbons of Grace imitates a series of pictures that constantly change and reshape and restructure as the story unfolds. Every image, every sensation, every emotion in effect becomes its own 'ribbon of grace’." Janice Devereux, Otago Gaily Times, October Issue 2007.

"With a strong plot and superbly drawn characters this is a great read, one I found difficult to put down. … Her blending factual historical information into her fiction is impressive and gives the story great credibility" Graham Beattie (Beattie's Book Blog)

"Edgy, but compassionate, the stories in Live News show a keen insight into human foibles as Maxine Alterio describes the peccadilloes of her often quirky, always memorable characters. Suffused with wit, gentle irony and the intrigues of love and loss this is a lively, well crafted collection from an accomplished storyteller." Publisher's comment (Steele Roberts Ltd, NZ)

The fourth (or is it fifth?) title for this week is Penelope Todd's probing and lyrical writer's memoir, Digging for Spain (Longacre Press, NZ) -

Here are two excerpts to tempt - ". . . I like to think there’s a story already sealed within each of us. Some of us take a long time to uncover, decipher and assent to it. We start our search when we find that the stories we’ve attached ourselves to prove no longer accurate, their themes too limited … "

“I recently found out that a family motto from my father’s side was Portet Vive. It behoves us to live. I choose a magnificent over a mundane interpretation. It behoves us to live well: richly, broadly, deeply and intricately — which adverbs, for me, describe the route that writing seems to take.”

Penelope blogs at The Intertidal Zone and is the director of the newly launched e-publishing company Rosa Mira Books.

"While the reader’s ideal might always be the beautifully bound book sitting warm in the hand, our world demands alternatives to the milling of trees and long-distance haulage; it’s calling for ecologically smart, discreet, and low-space.

Rosa Mira Books offer the kind of delectable reading experience that makes you forget you’re not holding a paperback. . . We present to our readers ebooks that are stimulating, dynamic, fresh, and ultimately heartening, because that is the kind of writer we seek. . . Rosa Mira will give 10 per cent of net income to this Indian neighbourhood reading scheme, run by a friend."

If you would like to be in the draw for these five books - Joanne's, Melissa's, Maxine's and Penelope's; and, too, the excellent artworks listed on the MANY AS ONE page - please consider making a donation to our Christchurch community. It is now just over five weeks since the 6.3 earthquake shook the city and there is still a long way to go in terms of rebuilding and recovery. You will find an orange donate button to the right of this post - thank you.

"Portet Vive - it behoves us to live well; richly, broadly, deeply and intricately."

Thanks for this reminder, Pen.

Muses

2011-03-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

Muses - Timothy Cahill (USA)
Digital print on archival rag paper from original scanned negative
8 x 12 inches (approx. 200 x 300MM)
Signed limited edition

UPDATE: Donations and new artworks are still coming in for the Christchurch earthquake fund. Muses has been generously put forward by US photographer, writer and director of The Center for Documentary Arts, Timothy Cahill. I have long drawn (and been drawn to) spaces uncannily like the cloister of this old Cuban church. You will recognize one such drawing in Scriptorium - A poem for Melissa Green - above. Of his Muses image, Timothy writes, 'The photograph was taken in February 2000 during intermission of a concert in the chapel of Iglesia del Espiritu Santo, the oldest church in Havana, Cuba, built in 1632. The musicians, all under age 21, had no backstage; they congregated with their instruments in one of the chapel transepts until the program resumed."

I've made a number of drawings over the years that allude to the space and figures captured in this photograph. I no longer know which came first - the church, the photograph or the drawings; one of those unfolding mysteries I am content to live with. . .

(1) Return - charcoal & pastel on paper - CB

(2) Reunion - charcoal & pastel on paper - CB

(3) After All This Time - brooch; chinagraph pencil & liquin with sterling silver - CB

Snowflake pendant

2011-03-15T13:58:00.000-07:00

A new artwork has been donated to the MANY AS ONE stockroom - this sterling silver Snowflake Pendant 'All Directions Lead Home' by Wellington jeweler, Kate Alterio. This piece is from Kate's 2009 series titled 'The snow falls, each flake in its appropriate place.'

All Directions Lead Home - KATE ALTERIO (NZ)
Snowflake pendant 2009
Sterling silver & enamel paint

Tomorrow is Wednesday which means there'll be a draw & accompanying announcement before the day is up. I'm going to need your help to keep the momentum going; artworks are continuing to come in from near and far, so please keep word about this small fund-raising effort circulating? Together we have raised $1355.00 so far. . .

Thank you for your beautiful snowflake pendant, beautiful Kate.

2011-03-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

Today is Sunday which means it's time for this week's MANY AS ONE draw. Stephen Inggs's Clock was drawn from the 'hat'* (pictured below). I will be sending an e- to one lucky person before the day is up. Meantime, let me say that Stephen will be mailing this Clock from his studio in Cape Town, South Africa to a writer in N. East Pennsylvania - happy! Congratulations and many thanks to all artists and donators.

A new piece has been added to the stockroom catalogue - an embroidered fossil, a tessarolax, created by Meliors Simms and hand-stitched onto a piece of vintage blanket beside a 'distressed' Kaiapoi Mill label.

Fossil - tessalorax - MELIORS SIMMS (NZ)

Hand-stitched embroidery on vintage Kaiapoi Mill blanket
framed size 240 x 212 x 43 MM (box frame)

Meliors writes, 'Right from the time of the September earthquake it has been my intention to donate this piece, somehow, to Christchurch earthquake recovery because of the obvious Kaiapoi connection. There are a couple of blog posts about the making and exhibiting of this piece that you can read about here - http://meliors.blogspot.com/search?q=tessarolax.'

Click on these links to visit Meliors' Facebook and Etsy pages and discover more of her work; everything she creates carries an ethos of mindfulness and communicates the importance of fostering right relationship with our natural world and everything in it. . . Meliors and her collaborative partner, Bethwyn have also been working on an 'altered book' in response to the Christchurch earthquake and have generously offered to donate this work to our MANY AS ONE initiative once they have completed it. . . Many thanks, Meliors & Bethwyn.

The next draw will be on Wednesday 16 March 2011.

* MANY AS ONE 'Hat'.

With mind and heart turned to the people of Christchurch, Japan, Bahrain, Libya, North Africa and our own immediate challenges. . . I was reminded today of John Donne's 17th Meditation -

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. . . "

May we find ways to keep ourselves and each other fortified so that we can in turn send love, hope and light to our grieving world XO

Coccolithophors & Many Islands

2011-03-11T14:08:00.000-08:00

There will be a second draw for the Christchurch earthquake fund this week, a project that's more-or-less taking shape as we go along. . .

Please click on the MANY AS ONE tab on the top bar of this page - you will find a growing 'stockroom' of drawings, miniature paintings, hand-crafted jewelry and art objects that will be looking for homes over the coming weeks. In time, the collection will hopefully grow to include items with initials other than CB on them (variety is a spice of life).

This week, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Sydney-based multi-media artist, Lisa Roberts. Lisa has generously donated her hand-engraved perspex piece titled Coccoliths, carbon sequesters to this Christchurch fund; she lived in the city some years ago and has retained strong connections to New Zealand.

Coccoliths, carbon sequesters - Lisa Roberts (Australia)

Engraved Perspex, 120mm x 65mm

Lisa and I have a number of things in common, amongst these a passion for Antarctica and a peculiar fondness for tiny wee sea creatures. (One day, a poem will take shape in which the words coccolithophor and foraminifera vie for supremacy in the same stanza.). For a rare glimpse into the balletic antics of krill and the intricacies of krill sex, click here and be entranced by Lisa's exquisitely lyrical - and scientifically accurate - animated drawings.

re; MANY AS ONE, I've been wondering about how best to proceed from here.

Here's the plan. . . Each artwork will be given a number. At the end of each week, these numbers (written onto black paper) will be placed in the hat along with the names of donators to the fund (written on white). A friend will draw one of each colour to determine that week's 'match'. (To reiterate what I said in last Monday's post. . . no contribution to this fund could be considered too small. Everyone who donates (button to the right ---- >>>) stands an equal chance of having their name pulled from the hat each week.) The intention is to keep this draw running at least till the end of April, at which point I'll be heading North West for a couple of weeks (more about this sweet development later ; )). . .

Meantime, here is one of my small ink drawings currently in the 'stockroom' (the details of which can be found here) -

Thanks again +++ Lisa - and to all of you for being a part of this.

Paper Stack

2011-03-09T14:10:00.000-08:00

I am happy to announce that last week's Paper Stack* will be soon be on its way to Pasadena in the US.

*Did you know?

A sea stack is a column of rock standing in the sea, remaining after the erosion of coastline cliffs. Sea stacks are generally comprised of countless generations of - amongst other things - coccolithophors and calcareous foraminifera (see, here they are again. . . these words belong in the same sentence?).