For the group tutorial this week, an artist talk by Rosie Sherwood.

Artist and independent publisher. Did MA Book Arts at Camberwell. When not helping GCSE students — her day job is as art technician — is doing her own art and independent publishing.

Specializes in artists books and stories through As Yet Untitled (@ayupublishing), and publisher of Elbow Room (@elbow__room).

Exhibits in not just the infamous white cube: but also places suchg as the display window of bookshops!

Shows at artists book fairs —- encounters an audience. At book fairs the environment is part art faire, part market… people engage (unlike at a private view).

Was looking to expand her company… away from the hierarchal gallery model… is a huge fan of crowdfunding. Did a successful Kickstarter Campaign. A shorter funding period better than long one, unless you have substantial and preexisting support fan base. Her campaign had 70 supporters and she knew less than 1/3, 1/4 came from artists she knew, the rest were new contacts.

Elbow

Showed samples of Elbow. Nice tissue paper in the middle.

Driven by the work sent in, and her response to it.

Price is GBP 5. Its about distribution and supporting the arts community. Sharing work. Needs to be a price that’s affordable. Does a run of 50. Very labor intensive. Enjoys the making and the response.

Interested in narrative. Hows its constructed and interpreted. How art tells stories.

Some of her work is based around comic books.

In the gutter

Shows In the gutter. Cutout comic book panels. Two different responses. Its stronger than in looks (made from Tyvek - plastic fibers). Made one by literally cutting out a comic, but was very weak; made bronze; then Tyvek.

Reading the space. Smaller panels means story is moving faster.

Making the gutter concrete.

Its the comic book Skeleton.

The End

How much information is needed for narrative to exist. So much built around signs and symbols. How much or little is required.

Its the comic book fossil.

She Must

Takes idea of structure and relationship between image and text and importance of time, and builds on it.

Question as an artist

Frustration. Photographs in comics fail. Ways to make photography less real. Long exposure (10s), medium format (Hasselblad) so ‘thick’ negatives.

Time out of place

Abstracted book. In volume 11. Single sheets, and the occasional diptych. Loose-left so people can change order. Can overlay to get different images.

Made from Modelspan tissue paper (the paper that is normally used to cover model planes). Then Inkjet printed. Works well, but needed trial-and-error to perfect.

[see also Esaki Tissue - http://www.freeflightsupplies.co.uk]

First edition of 25. Sold out quickly. Now on to second edition.

Do a limited first edition, and then an open second edition.

The Ellentree

Book out in June, thanks to Kickstarter. Unlike She Must, this one is brightly coloured.

Made 2000 origami birds… slightly OCD ;-) Can now make one in under 2 minutes blindfolded.

Sustainability

Because Elbow Room is so affordable (too cheap?) it sells out at book fairs. If it was more expensive that wouldn’t happen.

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