Casting details

Casting Progress

Casting remnants

I was throwing the remaining solidified plaster out the plastic containers in which i have been mixing my coloured plasters, and admired the arrangement of these remnants in the bin.

From then on I have been collecting the sections of dried plaster that get cracked out of the container once the plaster has been poured.

Casting records

Whilst I have been casting, i have kept a record of the composition of every layer. I find these rather beautiful, especially when they are displayed together in rows.

Assembly at The Mutual

I have a number of artist books in 'Assemble' A Members Led Resource Project at The Mutual.



17-22 April
Opening Event
Sunday 17th April
4-7pm

Ironbbratz Studios
84 Miller Street
3rd floor
Glasgow
G1 1DT

support at loop (international women's day)

Thanks to all the kind people who donated bras to me for my artwork at The Hidden Gardens, Tramway, as part of International Women's day. I was amazed by the generosity of people, and it made for a great installation.

Thanks also go to my great team of volunteers - Anna, Meera, Laura and Luisa who helped with the install and destall and were super enthusiastic.





When installing it was lovely to discuss with other ladies the ups and downs of being a woman, and we shared many a story about our bras - remember the first bra you wore? the occasion at school when you realised it was time to move from crop tops etc!





On the day of the event itself, the weather was dreadful - gale force winds and rain. The bras stayed put - a true sign of their resiliance!



I enjoyed speaking with a few people who did venture into the rain, and again, more womanly stories were shared.



Those few encounters were meaningful and I am pleased that the installation resonated with people.



The installation has been removed now, but those bras donated will go to a charity who supply women in need with bras.

100th International Women's Day

Briggait Project Space Exhibition

I was recently selected to have a solo exhibition in one of the project spaces, The Briggait, Glasgow.

The Briggait is a beautiful Grade A listed building in Glasgow’s Merchant City. It has recently been redeveloped as a new cultural space for the city. At the main entrance, there are two project spaces which are intended to be used for exhibitions that reflect the multiplicity of art forms created at the Briggait whilst enlivening the beautiful façade of the building.

A programming panel made up of arts practitioners based in the building has been formed to create a programme for the public spaces. The new programme of exhibitions in the project spaces will commence with an opening event on Friday 11th March 2011 at 6pm. First up, London based artist Heena Kim will be showing a selection of her paintings for the first time in Scotland. Full details of dates and times to follow.

Talk at North Lanarkshire High Schools Art Festival

I was invited to be the guest speaker at this years North Lanarkshire High Schools Art Festival.

Tonight I went to the Tudor Hotel, Airdrie to "provide an inspirational talk" to the young people whose work was on display.

The standard of work was exceptional. Students ranged from 12-17 years old, and produced a wide range of work in a variety of media.

I talked about my journey from being a student at college and Glasgow School of Art to going on to have a studio and work at Glasgow School of Art (amongst other things).

I gave examples of how my artistic career has enabled me to travel, and my experiences of exhibitions, commissions and other opportunities.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, and following my speech it was great to talk with lots of students and teachers.

Call for bras

To celebrate the 100th International Women’s Day, on Tuesday 8th March I will be doing a performance in the Hidden Gardens at Tramway as part of loop | 100 events for the 100th International Women's Day. [* for more information please see address below]

The performance will require the use of 100 bras of any size and style.

If you have any bras that you could lend for the day, please drop them off or send them to Tramway or contact me (details below). Items will be returned at the end of the event.

Your support is greatly appreciated!

Helen Shaddock c/o sitandknitabit, Tramway, 25 Albert Drive, Glasgow, G41 2PE
Or contact helen.shaddock@yahoo.co.uk

* garterstitch100.posterous.com

Incomplete Manifesto for Growth

Written in 1998, the Incomplete Manifesto is an articulation of statements exemplifying Bruce Mau’s beliefs, strategies and motivations. Collectively, they are how we approach every project.


1. Allow events to change you.
You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

2. Forget about good.
Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you'll never have real growth.

3. Process is more important than outcome.
When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to
be there.

4. Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child).
Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.

5. Go deep.
The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value.

6. Capture accidents.
The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.

7. Study.
A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit.

8. Drift.
Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgment. Postpone criticism.

9. Begin anywhere.
John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.10. Everyone is a leader.
Growth happens. Whenever it does, allow it to emerge. Learn to follow when it makes sense. Let anyone lead.

11. Harvest ideas.
Edit applications. Ideas need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment to sustain life. Applications, on the other hand, benefit from critical rigor. Produce a high ratio of ideas
to applications.

12. Keep moving.
The market and its operations have a tendency to reinforce success. Resist it. Allow failure and migration to be part of your practice.

13. Slow down.
Desynchronize from standard time frames and surprising opportunities may present themselves.

14. Don’t be cool.
Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.

15. Ask stupid questions.
Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.

16. Collaborate.
The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.

17. ____________________.
Intentionally left blank. Allow space for the ideas you haven’t had yet, and for the ideas
of others.

18. Stay up late.
Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you're separated from the rest of the world.

19. Work the metaphor.
Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.

20. Be careful to take risks.
Time is genetic. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.

21. Repeat yourself.
If you like it, do it again. If you don’t like it, do it again.

22. Make your own tools.
Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools amplify our capacities, so even a small tool can make a big difference.

23. Stand on someone’s shoulders.
You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better.

24. Avoid software.
The problem with software is that everyone has it.

25. Don’t clean your desk.
You might find something in the morning that you can’t see tonight.

26. Don’t enter awards competitions.
Just don’t. It’s not good for you.

27. Read only left-hand pages.
Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our "noodle."

28. Make new words.
Expand the lexicon. The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.

29. Think with your mind.
Forget technology. Creativity is not device-dependent.

30. Organization = Liberty.
Real innovation in design, or any other field, happens in context. That context is usually some form of cooperatively managed enterprise. Frank Gehry, for instance, is only able to realize Bilbao because his studio can deliver it on budget. The myth of a split between "creatives" and "suits" is what Leonard Cohen calls a 'charming artifact of the past.'

31. Don’t borrow money.
Once again, Frank Gehry’s advice. By maintaining financial control, we maintain creative control. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it’s surprising how hard it is to maintain this discipline, and how many have failed.

32. Listen carefully.
Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with him or her a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world onto our own. Neither party will ever be the same.

33. Take field trips.
The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic–simulated environment.

34. Make mistakes faster.
This isn’t my idea – I borrowed it. I think it belongs to Andy Grove.

35. Imitate.
Don’t be shy about it. Try to get as close as you can. You'll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable. We have only to look to Richard Hamilton and his version of Marcel Duchamp’s large glass to see how rich, discredited, and underused imitation is as a technique.

36. Scat.
When you forget the words, do what Ella did: make up something else ... but not words.

37. Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.

38. Explore the other edge.
Great liberty exists when we avoid trying to run with the technological pack. We can’t find the leading edge because it’s trampled underfoot. Try using old-tech equipment made obsolete by an economic cycle but still rich with potential.

39. Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms.
Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces – what Dr. Seuss calls "the waiting place." Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference – the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals – but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.

40. Avoid fields.
Jump fences. Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields.

41. Laugh.
People visiting the studio often comment on how much we laugh. Since I've become aware of this, I use it as a barometer of how comfortably we are expressing ourselves.

42. Remember.
Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction. But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That’s what makes us aware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is new, a partial construct different from its source, and, as such, a potential for growth itself.

43. Power to the people.
Play can only happen when people feel they have control over their lives. We can't be free agents if we’re not free.

Richard Eyre: Arts cuts will result in cultural apartheid

During the year of the Jubilee I was asked to make a short speech about the arts in the Queen's presence. As I spoke, the Queen standing beside me, she remained inscrutable. If she agreed with me that the government should increase its support for the arts, she kept it to herself. Only when I quoted this – from the art critic John Ruskin – did she respond:

"Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts: the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the other two, but of these three, the only trustworthy one is the last."

As I spoke the last sentence I turned to share it with HMQ. Her eyes were fixed with no great curiosity on a spot on the ceiling, her heart no doubt longing to be delivered from the tedium of polemic.

To me this assertion from Ruskin is a matter of faith. The book of our art lives in the empire of invention of our fiction, poetry, drama, dance, our music, films, fashion, TV, video games, advertising, photography, design, architecture and so on, and in the archipelago of our cultural institutions – libraries, museums, theatres, opera houses, galleries, concert halls, cinemas and arts centres. They'll all be eroded by the decision to leech the humanities from our universities, by Arts Council cuts and by the depletion of the training of musicians, actors and artists. And little by little the already large gap between those for whom the arts are a part of life and those who feel excluded from them will widen to an unbridgeable divide. The result: cultural apartheid.

Governments have always been wary of the arts because they're wayward and ambiguous and because they deal with feelings rather than facts. Napoleon said that teaching the humanities in universities was "glorified table talk". Lenin said he was afraid of listening to Beethoven because it made him feel like caressing people's heads when it was necessary to beat them. Most politicians in this country are more interested in having their own heads caressed and respond in wounded bewilderment when they discover that the artists that they've allowed to flourish through their patronage wish to retain the right to criticise them.

Of course it's irritating for politicians to have to endure the noisy dissent of an apparently arrogant and self-interested claque, but then it's always been hard for rulers to license the jester as well as the judge, or to acknowledge poets as the legislators of the world. After all, art is all the things that politics isn't: "Politics is the great generaliser and literature the great particulariser," wrote Philip Roth, "and not only are they in an inverse relationship to each other – they are in an antagonistic relationship. To politics, literature is decadent, soft, irrelevant, boring, wrong-headed, dull, something that makes no sense and that really oughtn't to be. Why? Because the particularising influence is literature. But how can you be an artist and renounce the nuance? How can you be a politician and allow the nuance? As an artist the nuance is your task. Your task is not to simplify ... "

Art is about the "I" in life not the "we", about private life rather than public. A public life that doesn't acknowledge the private is a life not worth having. David Cameron seems to grasp this and is keen to "start measuring our progress as a country, not just by how our economy is growing, but by how our lives are improving; not just by our standard of living, but by our quality of life." But how this could possibly exclude the arts and the humanities? Can't government for once be persuaded of the virtue of subsidising weapons of happiness rather than weapons of destruction?

We're assiduous in presenting arguments that it should: we say that the cultural industries are of enormous and growing value to the British economy; that a healthy cultural realm is a powerful reason for Britain's magnetism as a tourist destination; that British cultural excellence is a valuable element of British identity abroad. And, like a 19th century curate's wife distributing pamphlets to the deserving poor, we argue for the social usefulness of art: we say, for instance, that music makes schoolchildren better at maths or that drama makes our society more tolerant. These things may be true – I hope they are – but this utilitarianism takes away from art the very thing that makes it alluring: its mystery and its joy, its irresponsibility, if you like.

Any utilitarian argument for art will succeed only in diminishing the thing it's arguing for. Art is not an ethical medicine: it doesn't improve our behaviour or civilise us. Indeed, as the philosopher George Santayana said: "Music is useless, as life is"; but it's precisely our awareness of the "uselessness" of life that make us want to struggle to give it purpose and to give that purpose meaning. The arts offer us a commentary on being alive: how to make sense of the world and even how to change it. Change begins with understanding and understanding begins by identifying oneself with another person: in a word, empathy. The arts enable us to put ourselves in the minds, eyes, ears and hearts of other human beings. What we hold in our heads – our memory, our feelings, our thoughts, our sense of our own history – is the sum of our humanity. We carry on us what King Lear called the "smell of mortality"; art redeems mortality by giving us a glimpse of eternity. It briefly illuminates something that's more than human. By diminishing the opportunity to experience the arts or to study them and the humanities – literature, philosophy, history, religion, languages – we condemn future generations to a life a little less than human.

Telling stories

Telling Stories



Preview February 11th, 6pm - 9pm

Open February 12th - March 6th Thurs - Sun 11am - 5pm

David Shrigley Frank Quitely

Gary Erskine Jamie Grant

Sorcha Edwards Stuart Murray

Anna Tanner Mitch Millar

Chris Connelly Penny Sharp

Curt Sibling Innes Smith

Evy Craig Lewie Wicksted

Helen Shaddock Honeypears

Graphic novels such as Kick Ass have recently infiltrated the main stream through their translation
onto screen. Market Gallery presents graphic artists contributing to this creative boom, juxtaposing
them with contemporary fine artists who also use storytelling and narrative to construct their own
unique worlds.



Scotland is world renowned for its story telling. This exhibition aims to celebrate this legacy whilst
examining the relationship between illustration, film and fine art and encourage discussion about
how these seemingly autonomous media share common themes and motivations.



Throughout the show there will be a program of talks and events.

Please see the website for more details.

www.marketgallery.org.uk

market@marketgallery.org.uk

334 Duke Street
Glasgow
G3 11QZ

Living Today at Glasgow School of Art

Living Today
With information from the George Orwell Archive

Matei Bejenaru, Ross Birrell, Francis Cape, Jens Haaning, David Harding, Ângela Ferreira, Eva Merz

15 Jan – 5 Mar 2011
Preview Fri 14 Jan, 6-8pm *

Last night I went to the preview of this exhibition and will be going back to have a closer look at the work. I particularly enjoyed the music played by the legendary DJ, Russ Winstanley.

This group exhibition presents artists whose work explores aspects of the society they live in – politics, culture, economy, living conditions and social structures.

Included are copies of information from the Orwell Archive, University College of London, relating to George Orwell’s 1937 publication “The Road To Wigan Pier” which, commissioned by Victor Gollancz and published by the Left Book Club, documented poverty in the north east of England before the Second World War.

Matei Bejenaru (Romania) makes work that analyses the way in which globalization affects post-communist countries’ labour forces. Past works include a Travelling Guide for Romanian illegal workers. The focus of Francis Cape’s (USA) artwork took a dramatic shift following a visit to New Orleans in 2005, just two months after Hurricane Katrina. After witnessing the destruction of lives, buildings, and an entire city's infrastructure, the artist turned to a combination of photography and construction, and began exploring themes of rescue and recovery efforts, social neglect, and design for living. Ângela Ferreira (Portugal), born in Mozambique and living between both South Africa and Portugal, explores ideological and economic issues between cultures. Jens Haaning (Denmark) looks at those living in society’s margins, in particular refugees.

As part of the exhibition we are publishing ‘You, Me, Them & Us’, by Eva Merz, a Danish artist living in Glasgow. This book contains series of interviews offering different perspectives, opinions and first-hand experiences of the Women’s Prison System in Scotland. Ross Birrell and David Harding make a trip to Wigan in response to this exhibition, to read from “The Road to Wigan Pier”.

Exhibition supported by Glasgow Life and University College London.

*Opening Night performance
Fri 14 Jan, 7.30-8.00pm
On the opening night of exhibition ‘Living Today’, DJ Russ Winstanley, founder of the legendary Northern Soul venue the Wigan Casino which ran ‘allnighters’ from 1973-1981 plays. Winstanley will play the famous ‘3 Before 8’ (Tobi Legend ‘Time Will Pass You By’, Jimmie Radcliffe ‘Long After Tonight Is All Over’ and Dean Parrish ‘I’m On My Way’) which were played three times at the end of each allnighter. Winstanley will end the set with Frank Wilson’s ‘Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)’, the last song ever played at the Wigan Casino. Winstanley performs as part of Ross Birrell and David Harding’s work in the exhibition.
This performance is free and everyone is welcome!

Featured member on Central Station website

"This week's featured member is Helen Shaddock whose colourful artist books currently adorn our homepage. Take a look at her portfolio to see more of her work."

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope 2011 brings lots of happiness, good health and success.

It's back to work now, so keep your eyes peeled for blog posts.

Have a good one!

Helen

Featured work on Central Station

I was contacted by the lovely Central Station team to inform me that my work is their feature on today's bulletin!

check it out...

http://www.thisiscentralstation.com/bulletin.aspx

Glasgow Life or Death by Rebecca Gordon Nesbitt

An analysis of the privatisation of Glasgow City Council’s cultural and leisure services was met with legal threats when it was published a couple of years ago.

For the past six months, Rebecca Gordon Nesbitt has been updating this research using as many of the investigative tools at my disposal as possible. A full report is now online http://www.shiftyparadigms.org/images/Glasgow_Life_or_Death.pdf

Please download it before it is threatened with removal.

Against a backdrop of growing inequality in the city, Culture and Sport Glasgow (CSG), or Glasgow Life as the company now prefers to call itself, has: failed to attract the outside funding on which its financial model was predicated, which means that vital services will have to be cut. run up a staggering pension deficit during its time of operation. trampled on the rights of its workers, which were supposed to be protected under the terms of its agreement with the council. prioritised the attraction of tourists to the city over the needs of the people of Glasgow. allowed its board members to profit from skewed procurement processes.bypassed mechanisms in place to ensure transparency. In the current climate of cuts to the public sector, it is necessary to make these findings known to the broadest possible readership, so that this devolved model of service provision is thoroughly rejected as a future option.

Please disseminate this report to anyone you think might be interested.

NAD/BAX WHATS NEW 60 HOURS SHOP - on the radio

As you know, I will have work for sale in the NAD/BAX WHATS NEW 60 HOURS SHOP on 21st, 22nd and 23rd December at the Briggait, Glasgow. Unfortunately I won't be there in person, but IT WILL BE WONDERFUL, and i hope you are able to go along.

Lee Ivett (one half of NAD/BAX) was interviewed on the Radio Show Subcity on Dec 13. He talked about NAD/BAX WHATS NEW 60 HOURS SHOP, and ran through the list of participating artists.

http://www.subcity.org/shows/initialitch/1b04a/

When on the subcity website, look for link on right to the programme and the interview is 23 min in to the show.

HAPPY LISTENING

an alternative way of folding a map

NAD/BAX - WHAT'S NEW - 60 HOURS SHOP Dec 21 - 23rd.

this will be wonderful

Opening times Dec 21st - 22nd 11am - 6pm -
EVENT Dec 23rd 7pm - 9pm -
Closing Dec 23rd 4pm

NAD/BAX - WHAT'S NEW - 60 HOURS SHOP Dec 21 - 23rd. NADFLY - Nicola Atkinson Does Fly + BAXENDALE - Lee Ivett creates a temporary shop in the Briggait Front Galleries, with other fellow artists, musicians, architects, writers, filmmakers, silversmiths, designers and ceramicists. They have created 100 gifts for the Holidays. The public can purchase these artistic gifts for £5 up to £50, making it affordable for everyone.

Nicola Atkinson Does Fly
Lee Ivett
Siobhain Forde
Hannah Buss
Aby Vulliamy
Stephanie Spindler
Carol Lambie
Chris Wallace
Julie Chapman
Marion Preez
Diane Dawson
Hanna Tuulikki
Rowena S Combie
Angharad McLaren
Helen Shaddock
Alison Macleod
Janie Nicoll
and more to follow

from a one-armed Helen

My work has taken a little bit of a back seat this week due to unforeseen circumstances. On Sunday I slipped on the ice and now have a fractured arm and a bruised spine - ouch!

So, my grand plans of casting sculptures have been postponed as I try to learn how to do everything with one hand and limited bending.

Recovery could take up to 6-7weeks, but hopefully I will get back into action before that. In the meanwhile, I will be doing more drawings, computer work, proposals and (hopefully) updating my website!

P.U.P.S Extended Opening Times

Due to the popularity of the Pop Up Print Shop, there will be an extension to the opening hours by two more days – 11th & 12th December. That’s just two more days to access some original fine art prints from the talented hands of 17 artists.

P.U.P.S will be providing the now famous mulled cider to help with the thaw, so pop in at 57 Byres Road before the shutters roll down for the very last time on Sunday at 6pm.

www.pupsart.weebly.com

Solo exhibition at Here Gallery, Bristol in 2011

My exhibition proposal for the Here Gallery, Bristol was selected, and so in 2011 I will be having a solo exhibition down south!

Check out the gallery's website here:

http://www.thingsfromhere.co.uk/about-us

I'm not yet sure of the dates, but will keep you posted

I emerge from the paperwork!

It seems like i have spent the past month writing various applications, reports and proposals - all part and parcel of being an artist, but, oh how i am looking forward to focusing on my studio work again.

Having gained Professional Development funding from the Scottish Arts Council last year, I was required to produce a report detailing how i used the money, what was/were the outcomes, the benefits of having the funding, the audience of the work etc.

Taking the place of the SAC, Creative Scotland have a similar fund for artists, and so many hours were spent pouring over this application. I even took a special trip to Edinburgh especially to drop off my application at Creative Scotland - no offense Royal Mail, but I just couldn't take the risk of late delivery.

The following week was the deadline for the Glasgow Visual Artist Grant Scheme, and so another application was submitted for this fund. Fingers crossed.

A while ago I was approached by Here Gallery in Bristol, and encouraged to submit a proposal for a solo exhibition in 2011. So, I ended the month of November by submitting an exhibition proposal.

It's back to the studio tomorrow!

Pop Up Print Shop (P.U.P.S)

I have some collograph prints for sale at the Pop Up Print Shop at 57 Byres Road, Glasgow.

I visited the shop today and enjoyed perusing through a wide range of Fine Art editioned prints by established and emerging artists including:

Karen Vaughan
Rachel Duckhouse
Al Gow
Gillian Mclarty
Diane Dawson
NADFLY
Janie Nicoll

What a super opportunity to get handmade, original, reasonably priced Christmas presents.

Opening hours:
26th - 28th November - 11am - 6pm
2nd - 5th December - 11am - 6pm

for more info please visit
www.pupsart.weebly.com

Papercutting blog

Check out this blog about papercutting



http://elsita.typepad.com/allaboutpapercutting/

Books taken to Glasgow Print Studio

Today I dropped off a number of my recent artist books at Glasgow Print Studio to be sold in their Christmas shop. Here are a few that can be purchased from GPS.





My Little Book of Notes



The Little Book of Things to Do



My handy little book

Braço de Ferro

The Glasgow School of Art Exhibitions Department is currently hosting this week (2-6 Nov) a Research and Development visit by Porto and Lisbon based Isabel Carvahlo and Pedro Nora, who are Braço de Ferro.

http://www.bfeditora.net/english/index.html

http://www.gsaevents.com/exhibitions/projectsandevents/braco-de-ferro

They are currently meeting with the GSA staff, students and Scottish practitioners working with artist books, design and experimental writing.

I met with them yesterday and took them on a trip to Edinburgh to visit:

The Fruitmarket Gallery Bookshop which has a range of artist books and lots of other wonderful publications



http://fruitmarket.co.uk/

Analogue - a brilliant art and design bookshop with a gallery too



http://www.analoguebooks.co.uk/

The Scottish Poetry Library with an exhibition of tiny artists books

http://www.spl.org.uk/events/index.html

From their visit they will develop a proposal for a project with the GSA Exhibitions Department.

It was brilliant to visit these places, hear about their projects, and tell them about Glasgow International Artists' Bookfair and my own artists books and artistic practice.

artist books in GSA library

The GSA library has recently purchased a couple of my new artist books, and have blogged about them!

Check out the link

http://gsaartdesign.blogspot.com/