Artist's Postcards - Unoriginal Sins

17 May ELEMENTS OF MINIATURISATION. 1996.

Posted at 16:09h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
10 x 14.5cm, 1pp, full colour artist's card with a photograph of Little Sparta where garden gnomes (which are not usually found in Finlay's garden) are next to a gravestone sculpture that calls to "Bring back the birch". The slogan "Bring back the birch" was a right-wing law and order slogan now not so often heard demanding the return of corporal punishment (whipping using a birch branch) but also is a call by Finlay to re-establish the birch tree in Scotland. An usually humorous card. This example is hand addressed to Janet Boulton and posted with franks and stamps. VG+.

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14 May AN UNINVITING GARDEN. 1996. HAND ADDRESSED BY FINLAY.

Posted at 14:14h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
9.9 x 8.2cm, 2pp. Two paintings of the same village are reproduced, the first is labelled "an uninviting garden" despite being perfectly pleasant. The second photo-manipulated version of the same painting but elements have been taken away (flowers on the tree and in the grass and bushes) and other elements added (a pirate like figure, shops, a flock of birds on the grass, a carousing group of people in a coach) underneath this less appealing scene is the text "The same garden, improved by Strathclyde Region with the support of the Scottish Art Council".
Another attack on his enemies by Finlay.
This example of the card is hand addressed by Finlay to Janet Boulton. VG+.

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08 May STRATHCLYDE REGION MADE WAR ON LITTLE SPARTA. STRATHCLYDE REGION IS NO MORE. 1996.

Posted at 16:05h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
10.2 x 14.6cm, 2pp artist's card. The card gloats at the demise (due to local government reorganisation) of his enemy Strathclyde Region by altering a phrase from the French revolution "Lyons made war on Liberty/Lyons is no more" which refers to the revolt against Paris that was put down by violent force. VG+.

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01 May ARCADIA – W.D. PROPERTY. 1996. HAND ADDRESSED BY FINLAY TO JANET BOULTON.

Posted at 16:00h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
10.6 x 15cm, 2pp artist's card. The front of the card has a fake notice that Arcadia is now W.D. (War Department - an old designation not used in 1996) and on the reverse an announcement that "following the action taken by Strathclyde Region, the Garden, Little Sparta will be closed to the public during 1996." This card was hand addressed to Janet Boulton and mailed to her else VG+.

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28 Apr ECHOES SERIES. A VARIATION ON HEIDEGGER. 1996.

Posted at 15:53h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
18.5 x 12cm, 4pp black on cream artist's card. Internally a poem is a loose translation/adaption from Heideggert's Aus der Erfahrung des Denkens a book about poetry and philosophy. Finlay points to the joys and inspirations one can take from the ordinary.
The Echoes Series are writings or poems by Finlay that use another work as a starting point to expand on the original or detourn it. VG+.

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16 Apr A TRADITIONAL RUSSET TINT. 1996.

Posted at 15:49h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
13.4 x 14.2cm, 2pp brown on cream artist's card with typography by Michael Harvey in an old-fashioned style. The text notes that linseed oil, cod oil, red ochre, yellow ochre and seawater caused the colouring on older sails as if deliberately painted. VG+.

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08 Apr HOMAGE TO POST-IMPRESSIONISM. 1996.

Posted at 15:43h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
11.2 x 16cm, 2pp artist's card with a full colour photograph by Pia Maria Simig of a model boat by Finlay. The highly colourful boat with its orange/red nets is an homage in colour to paintings of boats by Van Goch. VG+.

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06 Apr MIRROR. 1996.

Posted at 15:38h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
14 x 6cm, 4pp black on blue artist's card with a drawing by John Andrew of a boat on the front. On the back there is a "definition" work:

Mirror, n. a boat we can see ourselves in.

A comment that not only suggests a boat may have characteristics of the owner but has a double meaning that one can imagine oneself sailing it. VG+.

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02 Apr BITTS. BITS. 1996.

Posted at 15:32h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
13.4 x 12.4cm, 2pp black on white artist's card with small drawings by Heather Deedman of wooden joints and supports. The card is entitled

BITTS
bits

. Bitts on a boat are posts on a deck or fastening mooring lines or cables. The closeups of each Bitt may be seen as bits of Bitts. VG+.

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24 Mar PENCILLING IN A PORTHOLE. 1996.

Posted at 15:28h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
15.3 x 12.4cm, 42pp black on white artist's card with a drawing by Gary HIncks of a model making process where the holes in the side of the model representing porthole are made by pushing a pencil through the wood. The card is dedicated as a "Homage to SImon Cutts" - a writer and poet who presumably makes his mark on the world by the use of a pencil also. VG+.

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16 Mar BOREAS. 1996.

Posted at 15:20h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
6.5 x 5cm, 4pp black on white small artist's card which internally reads:

BOREAS
Plank bender

The drawing is of a tool used in model making that allows thin wood to be bent. Boreas being the North wind which makes growing trees bend under the forces of nature. VG+.

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02 Mar TWO INTERPOLATIONS. 1996. IN ORIGINAL PRINTED ENVELOPE.

Posted at 15:12h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
10 x 6.8cm printed manilla envelope content of a 9.8 x 6.6cm, 2pp black on green card with texts on both sides which are quotations from others to which Finlay has added text. The first discusses the meaning of PAN to the Greeks - the final part of which notes Arcady to be the "homeland of the Panzer divisions" a common Finlay trope. The other text discusses the Poussin painting ARCADIAN SHEPHERDS - Finlay's addition claims the words on the tomb to be VIRTUE and TERROR (from the French revolution) instead of the original "Et in Arcadia ego". The latter another common Finlay theme. Both VG+.

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