Smoothing a rumple
Looped
Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison
Presented in partnership with State Library Victoria
Friday 4th August – Sunday 26th November, 2017
Extended until Sunday 28th of February, 2027
La Trobe Reading Room
State Library Victoria
Before the library was officially open to the public, we tiptoed into the dome, with Sarah Haselton and Albertine Hamilton, and, over talk of Brockhoff Biscuits and horology, we restored to order our Looped display in the dais. With a reprinted collage base and a reprinted and bound edition of our artists’ book, Disrupted and rumpled (2017), we rewound the clock and slid, unfurled, measured, pinned, and polished until things looked as they’d previously done. It is wonderful to have the installation complete once more, as it comes up to its tenth year.
You can see Looped, comprised of five artists’ books, until the tail end of February, 2027, in the exquisite embrace of State Library Victoria’s dome.
A decade! This seems a more fitting finale.
We have also added an edition of I think all the world is falling, Dim wood, spark bright, and A warmed pebbled in your hand to our online store.
In a recent artists’ talk for the Fine Art Professional Practice third year students at RMIT School of Art, we touched upon Looped, and other earlier works, as we discussed digital platforms, commissions, and the highs and lows of making. Dipping back into our personal archives, including spaces like Marginalia, alongside our site (thanks to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and Trove) and other incarnations, reaffirmed why I keep posting here. It also made me keen for a design overhaul, but that will have to wait until a few other deadlines have been met.
(Pictured below, several of Louise’s first year Artists’ Books students at Looped.)
Editions of I think all the world is falling, No longer six feet under, Disrupted and rumpled, Dim wood, spark bright, and A warmed pebble in my hand, reside in various collections, including State Library Victoria (the editions in the dais are our own copies, and not the library’s own editions), National Library of Australia, University of the West of England (UK), Baylor University (USA), Cynthia Sears Collection, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (USA), Environmental Design Library, Berkeley University of California (USA), Indiana University, Wells Library, Art & Architecture Collection (USA), and North Dakota State University (USA).
Image credit: Bird's-eye view of Domed Reading Room, Public Library Victoria, photographed by Sears' Studios, ca. 1915, via State Library Victoria
