Artist's Postcards - Unoriginal Sins

19 Dec UNTITLED (PART OF A PLANK), 1995.

Posted at 08:17h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
10.6 x 11.3cm, 4pp outer folder in grey with tipped on 9.5 x 44cm opened out, 8pp concertina folded, white paper with the four panels of texts in outline font:

PART OF A PLANK
OVER
PART OF A PLANK

EDGE TO EDGE
PLANK TO A PLANK

END TO END
ABUTTING

STEM TO STERN

The panels firstly describe three methods of ship building where different ways of laying the wood is used. The final panel encompasses the entire boat from front to back.
One is reminded, although the comparison is probably just coincidence, of Lawrence Weiner's conceptual art works where all physical options of interrelations between things are listed to create conceptual sculptures. VG+.

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18 Dec THE DEEP-RED BROWN. 1995.

Posted at 21:46h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
7.2 x 8cm, 4pp. Artist's card printed red on light yellow with an abstract drawing by Gary Hincks on the front that looks like a close up of sackcloth .
Internally there is a translation of two lines from a fragment from Archilochus the Greek poet:
The deep red-brown
of rain-wet sailcloth

The poem is reflected in the drawing. VG+.

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17 Dec LONGING. 1995.

Posted at 21:41h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
12.7 x 8.6cm, 4pp, Artist's card printed black on blue with a poem by Finlay called LONGING.

to see
to see if it were
if it were but the smoke
the smoke going up
going up from the houses
the houses
of rocky
Ithaca

The poem describes the longing and homesickness of Ulysses for his home. VG+.

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15 Dec UNTITLED. UNFOLDER. CHRISTMAS 1995.

Posted at 10:15h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
Three nested sheets, each 15 x 11cm (closed size), with texts on the folds and an illustration by Gary Hincks of a Zulu Skiff in the centre sheet. The work can be slowly opened to read in order:

UNTITLED UNFOLDER

bow curves bow cleaves

sail powers sail steadies

rudder steers stern stitches

TT 117 zulu skiff

Part of the :"Echoes series" this work is a variation on another poet's work - here Ian Stephen. The card is noted as being Christmas 1995 but also Easter 1996. VG+.

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10 Dec FOR MY BIRTHDAY. 1995.

Posted at 21:32h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
11 x 11cm, 4pp, Artist's card printed black on white with a drawing of a boat and inside a poem by Finlay:

FOR MY
BIRTHDAY

I
want a

Kit
Wood

kit

On the surface this is a simple birthday request for a model boat kit made of wood however the boat drawing is of PZ134 - a wooden fishing boat called the Ocean Pride which was originally built in 1919. It was being restored by various enthusiasts - hence the real boat is a kit being made by hobbyists as well. VG+.

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04 Dec SOUND SHANTY. 1995.

Posted at 21:28h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
10 x 5.5cm, 4pp, Artist's card printed black on blue with a sound poem by Finlay on the front made up of the various abbreviations for ports. VG+.

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01 Dec ELEGY. 1995.

Posted at 21:20h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
9.5 x 6.1cm, 4pp, Artist's card with a wreath on the front. The drawing could also be an image of a tyre hung from the side of a boat to stop the hull hitting the dock.

Internally a poem:

Elegy
Courageous 11
Faithful 111

The names of boats placed together leave the impression of a dedication for the dead. Perhaps even fishermen dead. VG+.

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28 Nov BATTLE FLAG FOR A CATAMARAN. 1995.

Posted at 21:11h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
10.3 x 14.4cm, 2pp, Artist's card with a typographic design by Michael Harvey after Finlay's instruction.

YELLOW
VIOLE(N)T
YELLOW
VIOLE(N)T
YELLOW

The structure of the five words reflects the structure of a catamaran with its three hulls (Yellow) and the turbulent water (violent/violet) in between. Hence a symbolic flag for the vessel. VG+.

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24 Nov LAKE ISLE. 1995.

Posted at 21:07h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
9.1 x 9cm, 4pp, Artist's card printed black on green. A drawing of rubber beams by Gary Hincks illustrates a poem by Finlay internally:
LAKE ISLE

Nine bean-rows in
a bee-loud glade by
a shore where peace comes<BRdrop-
ping slow

VG+.

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12 Nov A SEASONAL MONUMENT. 1995.

Posted at 20:55h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
10.3 x 14cm, 2pp, Artist's card printed black on deep green. The full title is "A SEASONAL MONUMENT TO THE SOVIET POET MAYAKOVSKY*" beneath which is the line "The smashed canoes of the Salix fragilis". Salix fragilis is the willow tree. Mayakovsky killed himself after his love affair with three different women turned sour - he left a poetic suicide note that included the words "The love-boat has come to grief/On the reefs of convention." The crack willow trees are known to break open (usually with a very loud noise) and Finlay's metaphor of a "smashed canoe" reflects the poem left behind in Mayakovsky's flat. VG+.

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08 Nov PINES IN THE SNOW. 1995.

Posted at 09:26h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.. (1995) 12.7 x 8.2cm, 4pp artist's card which shows a list of "words" each beginning with the capital letter T and then various anagrams of LARK (but not the word Lark itself) - it is hard to be sure of the meaning of this card other than perhaps the letters are meant to represent the branches of the various pine trees (and the birds in them). VG+. 1...

01 Nov ECHOES SERIES. IL PLEUT. 1995.

Posted at 20:46h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
16.5 x 10.5cm, 2pp, Artist's card designed in the format of the Apollinaire Il Pleut calligramme where the lines descend like rain - but the text here is taken from D. H. Lawrence's Autumn Rain. This is one of Finlay's Echoes Series where known poetic works are recreated with some aspect of the original retained. VG+.

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