Graphite drawings on Arches mounted on square plastic salad plates, held in a plastic file holder, with japanese and standard vellum, mi teintes, digitally manipulated images and inkjet text. 8.25 x 10.2 x 6.5 inches. 6 “volumes” (plates) plus 6 two-page books. One of a kind.
Artist Statement
The artist’s book, “a table for four”, is the celebration of oral tradition. In our family, the dissemination of “history”, the stories of courage and strength, is not through books or carefully recorded documents but around the kitchen table, when the women tell stories while sipping their tea.
As homage to these story-keepers, the work is presented as plates in a rack, each one of the six plates is a volume; one for each decade in the life of the table. Each plate has a different drawing and, on the back, a pouch of translucent paper as fine as the skin of the women whose stories are there. Within each pouch is a mini-book of digitally-manipulated images and narrative text. The combining of current technology with traditional art techniques is to visually connect past and present in the same way the “table for four” physically connects us, a symbol of continuity between generations.
Men call it his-story, for that’s how they see it.
We call it stories, and tell them with tea.
All images and text copyright the artist. All rights reserved.
