Fragments, Connections: a day in the life

1. Yesterday I bought a copy of the October issue of Art Monthly to read an article by Ruth Hadlow, The Library of Translation Exercises: dis/location and creative practice in West Timor (74-76). Within the library is Diary, a virtual book and available on the web, made in collaboration with designer Neal Haslem.
2. Also in this issue is a review by Chris Raja of The Donald Friend Diaries: Chronicles and Confessions of an Australian Artist edited by Ian Britain (82). I have a copy of the full version of the diaries that included Friend's time in Hill End, linked by my research into the work of Judy McDermott who spent time as artist-in-residence in Hill End in 1999, and again in 2000. Last month I attended an opening of Julie Ryder's exhibition, Companion Planting a series of works developed from Julie's time also as art-in-residence at Hill End,staying in Donald Friend's and Donald Campbell's cottage. The works are extraordinary, a number make reference to Friend's diaries--rose prickles (I think that's what Julie called them, pointing out that what we call 'rose thorns' are not, they are 'rose prickles') on paper to form texts.
3. Yesterday I was reading Ann Hamilton: An Inventory of Objects and came across her work Untitled (1992) made from book pages, the words covered  by small stones. These reminded me (in form not content or intention) of Sue Lawty's work that I first saw at the V&A Museum, London (and have already referred to in this blog).
4. Finally, my bedtime reading last night was the catalogue of Edmund de Waal's exhibition, Signs & Wonders at the V&A Museum in 2009 (well, I'm hoping the exhibition is still on display as I intend to visit the museum early next year). His pots are undecorated, waiting as it were for inscription as his story, The Hare with Amber Eyes of a family collection of netsuke, which he uses to trace his family story. This small objects appear as characters in the narrative who participate in it and yet are untouched by it. The link I have made to the book is to a you-tube video of de Waal speaking about his book.