Artist's Postcards - Unoriginal Sins

09 Sep FIRE COMING ON… 1993

Posted at 10:26h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
5.4 x 3.9cm, 4pp card with a typographic design the text ~"Fire Coming On Will Discern And Catch Up with all Things" run together and shaped into a lightning strike. The text is a quote from Hereclitus who also wrote "Thunder Bolt Pilots All Things" - a reference to Zeus the most senior of the Gods. The quote is a threat of what will happen to the unjust and the shape a clear hint at its origin.
This is the first of two cards with the same text and the same design but the font is much bolder in this one than in the later card. VG+.

...

08 Sep COPYING MACHINE-GUN. 1993.

Posted at 21:23h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
14.5 x 11.5cm, 2pp card with a photograph by Pia Simig of a photocopying machine in b/w. Below the image Finlay has added "COPYING_MACHINE-gun" - the sound of an old fashioned copier when set to repeat is somewhat similar to that of a machine gun shooting bullets quickly and repetitively. VG+.

...

08 Aug BLUE/LARK. 1993.

Posted at 21:14h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
17.4 x 9.9cm, 2pp card with a vertical text - "LARK with your tiny scissors you shred a huge bale of BLUE" - a concrete poem which is also reflected in the predominantly light blue colour of the card. VG+.

...

01 Aug CLOUDS/RAIN. 1993.

Posted at 21:11h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
17.4 x 9.9cm, 2pp card with a vertical text - "CLOUDS your incredible capitals crown the tall grey columns of AIN" - a concrete poem which is also reflected in the predominantly grey colour of the card. VG+.

...

02 Jul FETE. 1993.

Posted at 21:03h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
15 x 10cm, 2pp card with a photograph by Ralph Irving of close up of strawberry plants with a stick noting "Fete des fraises" in a net to stop birds eating the fruit.
Strawberry was the name (Fraise) of 11 Prairial (30 May). A celebration of the greatest of fruits. VG+.

...

27 Jun BOUQUET. 1993.

Posted at 20:57h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
9.8 x 10.1cm, 4pp card with a painting by Gary Hincks of a wheel barrow full of wood. A visual poem.
Interestingly and perhaps the point of the card - the word bouquet comes from the Old French "bosquet" equivalent to bosc wood. VG+.

...

15 Jun SAINT-JUST 1767 – 1794. 1993.

Posted at 20:51h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
17.1 x 10.4cm, 4pp card with a painting by Gary Hincks of a carnation that has been cut in two down the vertical. Below it are the words "Saint-Just 1767-1794 "
On the back is the description of the young blade standing high in the cart as he went to his death. "He had a carnation in his button hole."
The card is a memorial for Saint-Just who died on the guillotine as part of the Thermidorian reaction. It also perhaps recalls the quote from the "Angel of Death": "One does not make revolutions by halves”. VG+.

...

13 Jun IF THE GARDEN WERE NOT A REPUBLIC…. 1993.

Posted at 20:43h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
11.5 x 10.4cm, 4pp card with a painting of a watering can by Mark Stewart with the two line poem:
"If the garden were not a republic
the watering can would be king."
The watering can is an important part of any gardener's equipment and the poem notes its essential role but also refers to the 10th day of August when the Terror ended with the downfall of Robespierre and eventually the return of the monarchy (admittedly after Napoleon). VG+.

...

08 Jun A DREAM IS ALWAYS THE SENTIMENT OF A TRUTH… 1993.

Posted at 20:28h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
15.5 x 10.5cm, 2pp card with a photographic image of a bust of Saint-Just by Kerstin Curwin.
The title of the card "A dream is always the sentiment of a truth that exists no more" which is somewhat appropriate to the hopes and wishes of the French revolution which eventually failed and the monarchy restored. VG+.

...

08 May A VALENTINE. 1993.

Posted at 20:20h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
8 x 14.8cm, 4pp (single folded sheet). Artist's card which internally has the concrete poem:

A, E, I, O, YOU.

Finlay must have been in love. Printed blue on green. VG+.

...

08 Apr AUTUMN. 1993.

Posted at 20:11h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
10 x 10cm, 4pp. Folding card with a line drawing by Stephen Duncalf, of a plastic model of a tank on the front - the various parts waiting to be assembled are still on the plastic stalks. Inside is a poem:

AUTUMN.
brings us again
familiar colour<Desert Yellow,
Panzer Grey.

The colours of the Fall are conjured up in the colours used by model makers for tank camouflage. VG+.

...

24 Mar JACOBIN. AFTER STEPHEN EDLICH 1944 – 1989. 1993.

Posted at 13:38h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
12.2 x 8cm, 4pp. Folding card with a drawing by Gary Hinks on the front which is in the style of the Edlich who used wood and other found objects in his cubist-like works. Here the drawing shows what looks like a found piece of wood with the word "JACOBIN" on it. One assumes Finlay felt that Edlich was somewhat Jacobin in his life. VG+.

...