Untitled

I thought of my heart being hunted
behind the surface of heaven
this happened before your father was woven
before your biting son
I saw it a long time from being
I saw it crossing inlets of limestone despair

...more from the Oracles project HERE

Magical Notebooks and Clamshell Time Trials

This week, I made some books and boxes for myself, something I don't do that often. It's fun and good practice, I often make things for myself to try out something I don't normally do or brush up on techniques. I made myself a notebook with a "magical symbols" print I made while at Paper Book Intensive for end papers. 

:: egyptian inspired symbols, relief printed end papers ::

:: rounded spine with cloth headband, the cover boards are beveled to fit the curve ::

:: embossed leather, it was one of my samples from Paper Book Intensive ::

In order to solve my problem of not enough flatfile storage space, I've also been practicing my clamshell boxes, in various sizes and shapes, and seeing how fast I can make them. It's like doing time trials to qualify for the imaginary Bookbinding Olympics. 

:: Deep clamshell box for storage ::

:: ephemera storage problem solved ::

When I'm in between projects or not feeling the thunderbolt of inspiration, getting my hands moving clears my head and reboots the thinking process, and if not, I have a new notebook and some fancy clamshell boxes!

Oracles

I've been working on a project titled "Oracles" that combines digital stills with experimental writing pieces. The project emerged from an interest in the concept of "creative utterance", the ability to create by speaking specific words. The source text of all these pieces is the Egyptian Book of the Dead. To create these poems, this source text is run through translation software in dozens of languages to intentionally mistranslate them. Through this process spontaneous new content emerges. The results are unexpectedly lyrical and strikingly visual and the original text is completely transformed. The texts are then edited into short poems.

I would like to make these into an artist's book and video installation. Sight and sound shimmering in and out of focus. Interpreting the oracles.

Cataract

horses

come into sight 

as the stars 

come down 

it seems strange

this empty sky

an insomnia

of whiteness

a cataract

of gold

drawn

from the well

 

Reason

:: Marianne Dages, Reason, letterpress, lead, cord, fur, silk, found image, 2014 ::

Reason

In this life
there is no reason
but the heads of dolphins
diving, diving
burn the tree
to its bones
heap its wood
and sign to me
-
wood
wood
mouth
-
so we can remember
that there is no reason
but the heads of dolphins
diving
diving

:: Marianne Dages, Black Column, 2014, letterpress ::

:: detail of Black Column ::

Current Projects

I'm trying to spend some of my summer time in the studio experimenting with type and looking at language as a visual thing and make images that look like writing but can't be read. Also working on the beginnings of a collaboration with Justin Staller, which will explore this line between the readable and unreadable.

Series

Series

like a light on the water

a window of water

a wind in the water

I am of two forms