Books stacks on the block

©2016 Barry Smith  - Detail of the organ

I was down the back of the block doing stuff when I noticed how much the old organ and it's book stool had changed over the last 12 months.

This lead me to go around and check out the book stacks on the block. All are doing their quite transitions beautifully - changing and growing wildlife and plants - so I thought I'd share a few images.

©2016 Barry Smith  - Organ keys with leaves

©2016 Barry Smith  - Beauty of wood, key and leaves

©2016 Barry Smith  - Quiet Transition - about 5-6 years old now 

©2016 Barry Smith - Detail - Quiet Transition

©2016 Barry Smith  - Self seeded plant - orchid?

©2016 Barry Smith  - Ground orchid in front of the Book Wall

©2016 Barry Smith  - Orchid in the Book Wall

©2016 Barry Smith  - View to the back of the block over the bench seat on the terrace

©2016 Barry Smith  - Organ and bench quietly disintegrating

I do love the fact that these seats, walls and art pieces are part of our environment but are also gradually breaking down - creating a different beauty.

Book stacks - back to nature

After the Sculpture on the Edge exhibition (June) I put the sculpture piece Quiet Transition out in the open in the garden area near the shed to see what happens over a period of time. I gave the piece the name Quiet Transition as I created it as an outdoor piece that would breakdown over time and return to the earth through a decaying process. Quiet Transitions is made from encyclopedias and world books that are glued together at the covers; and each stack has a 12mm steel rod through the centre bolted at the top and base through a piece of 16mm waterproof ply.

Well a comparison of the original photos of Quiet Transition in July with that of three months on shows there is quite a bit of action going on - swelling and twisting of the volumes. Nature is creating some interesting curves. The tension against the glue and steel rod must be fairly significant. I really like what is happening with this piece and hope to post on it in three to six month intervals.


Quiet Transition © Barry Smith



QT at 3 months © Barry Smith

 

Detail QT at 3 months © Barry Smith

Temporary placemaking art

As part of an art4place team Noela M, Kim S, Fiona and I have agreed to do various pieces of ephemeral, or maybe more correctly temporary art, at Mary Cairncross Park as part of the Festival of the Walks.

The theme of the work is the Richmond Birdwing Butterfly; and the work will be done on the 22 August on the Butterfly Walk. If you check out the art4place link you can see that we are doing 5 pieces of work. I have committed to do a Sea of Butterflies (really only a small pond of butterflies); and a Big(ish) Richmond Birdwing Butterfly.

The photo above shows that I am gradually getting a stock of butterflies printed, cut out and mounted on bamboo sticks. Children will be invited to colour these in with crayons; and stick them into the ground as part of an installation at the entrance and exit of the walk. Sometimes I feel I'm on a sweatshop production line with these - probably about 40-60 more to go.

I had decided to create the big butterfly out of split bamboo and paper. Couldn't get my hands on split bamboo and came up with 6 fibreglass fishing rods bought from our recycle shop ($2 each).

As you can see I scaled the butterfly up from A4 to 1.4m wide and about 1m deep; and formed it out of the rods lashed together through a roll of corrugated cardboard.

I tried covering the framework with tissue paper - big failure. So I have now covered it with cheese cloth - tacked in place with double sided tape and glued. I will cover this with tissue paper.

The aim is to invite park visitors to glue paper swatches (25mm square) to create the colour and texture of the male Richmond Birdwing Butterfly - under threat of extinction of course.

Encyclopedia stacks in the garden

For the Sculpture on the Edge exhibition I included a triple stack of encyclopedias called Quiet Transition as part of my exhibition contribution. The installation did not sell so it will now grace our block.

The aim of Quiet Transition is that it will gradually breakdown as it is exposed to the elements. Whilst the three stacks are bolted through the centre and sandwiched between water resistant ply wood the encyclopedias have not been treated in any way to make the paper and cardboard water resistant. So the individual volumes will begin to swell and deform; and with a bit of luck lichen and moss will begin to grow in the paper etc. In other words the installation will gradual make a quiet transition from the formal book form to become part of the surroundings they are placed in.

From the photos above you can see we have placed them at the end of a gravel garden area over at the shed. They are tucked into the Lilly Pilly bushes, under the Frangipani and a Pony Tail plant will hang over them as well.

I hope to photograph the stacks every 3 months just to record the quiet transition. So I will post on the progress. Of course Quiet Transition will continue to be for sale - it will just be a little 'transitioned' by the elements.

Book stacks - ephemeral assemblages

As planned I managed to get time to complete the book stacks. These stacks will most likely become part of the Lucas Parklands forest walk exhibition.

Though I call them book stacks it is not just a matter of stacking a heap of books together.



As you can see from the photo above each stack has its own water-rot resistant ply base and top; and a continuous metal thread through the centre. I attempted a few stacks about 12 months ago and found that to get the rigidity I wanted it was necessary to compress the book in lots of 5-7 using the top piece of timber, a large square washer and a nut to pull it all together. And to stop the books swivelling I glue them together as I go. The stacks below are strong and are freestanding units.



The three assembled stacks form one ephemeral sculptural piece I have called " Quiet Transition".



The idea is the stacks will stay out in the open and be subjected to the vagaries of the weather; and over time, maybe 2-5 years, will quietly breakdown and once again become part of the forest floor.