What a day!

The Siganto Foundation Artists’ Book Lecture 2016 in April was a huge success.

A white gloves experience displaying the creative and research projects of past and present Siganto fellows kicked off the day.  This unique experience not only allowed participants to examine a beautiful display of artists’ books and research material but to also talk to the artists themselves to discover the inspiration behind each of their projects.  Extremely popular and thoroughly enjoyed, read more about the artists and their projects at /blog/ala/2016/04/24/artists-books-in-april-at-slq/

White Gloves experience show casing the work of past and present Siganto fellows.

Following this, past Siganto fellow Clyde McGill entertained a large audience as he introduced his artists’ book “Seven conjectures on looking for place” through performance.  In this performance Clyde speaks of his friend “alloneword” who was to assist him tell the story of his Siganto research project “Looking for Queensland: the poetry & magic of ephemeral evidence”. Alas ‘alloneword’ did not arrive, although he had left bags of ephemeral evidence as an ‘aide de memoir’ for Clyde.  Very popular, Clyde’s performance received great applause.

Clyde McGill introducing his artists’ book “Seven conjectures on looking for place” through performance.  Clyde is handing Dr Marie Siganto AM a flower.  Image courtesy of Doug Spowart.

The day then took a more serious turn as the lectures began starting with guest speaker Guy Begbie.  A UK artist, Guy describes himself as a multidisciplinary artist, bookbinder and university associate lecturer. Guy’s lecture begins and ends with screenings of two of his short films ‘Orange Rumba’ and ‘Bookscape’.  Throughout the lecture Guy describes his artistic practice which is very multidisciplinary incorporating painting, drawing, print making, sculptural casting, film making and bookbinding.

Guy Begbie presenting his lecture.  Image courtesy of Doug Spowart.

It was then time to listen to current Siganto research fellow Dr Victoria Cooper talk about her project, “Montage compositions in artist books and zines”.  Victoria begins by discussing how her work has been influenced before moving on to talk about the significance of reading montage by addressing the ‘whole’ - edges, borders and intervals looking for cuts & seams but embracing fusions and seamless edges.  The definitions of “montage” and “collage” are then deliberated before  Victoria introduces the audience to examples of montage/collage in the Australian Library of Art’s collection.  Listen to Victoria’s lecture to learn more.

Dr Victoria Cooper and Siganto creative fellow Ana Paula Estrada.

Both lectures were very popular, full to capacity.

The audience then had to decide between refreshments or a final look at the Siganto Fellows exhibition.

It was a truly wonderful day, well attended and thoroughly enjoyed, and the Australian Library of Art is grateful for the support of Dr Marie Siganto AM and the Siganto Foundation for making it all possible.

Afternoon tea concluding the event.