Artist's Postcards - Unoriginal Sins

28 Sep K. S-R. 1997.

Posted at 09:45h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
17.5 x 20.4cm, 4pp, card printed black on cream with the internal text with a landscape linocut by Jo Hincks.
Internally there is a text:

K S-R
Everything has been turned into wood and shaped with an axe till it roughly resembles itself. Wooden roads, wooden colours, wooden suns, wooden pine-needles. A wooden field with wooden stoocks like sails on a sea.

K. S-R. is Karl Schmidt-Rottluff the German expressionist who formed the Die Brücke group. Late in his life he made almost exclusively landscape paintings that reflected his angular style (which looks much like the unsubtle edges of woodcuts). VG+.

...

06 Sep FOLDING THE LAST SAIL. 1997.

Posted at 09:38h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
8.4 x 9cm, single folded card printed black on brown with the internal text : "FOLDING THE LAST SAIL". The card colour is reminiscent of certain sails that take on their colour from the oils that are used to keep them flexible. The act of folding a sail to store it away or sometimes to wrap a dead body in it is reflected in the folding of the card. This work is after an earlier work by Thomas A. Clark and Laurie Clark. VG+.

...

01 Sep EVENT. 1997.

Posted at 09:33h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
14.8 x 10cm, single folded sheet to create a 4pp card with a drawing by Gary Hincks of a model boat, Inside Finlay describes a model sailboat on chair, propped amongst cushions with a tape-machine playing the sound of wind, rain and ocean waves. The "event" is a conceptual sailing. VG+.

...

22 Aug W. STEER AT WALKBERWICK.1997.

Posted at 09:23h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
10.5 x 9.5cm, 4pp card with a detail of a painting by Steer and internally a poem by Finlay:

W. Steer at Walberswick

Tucking into
knickers
imperishable
petticoat
froth

The reference painting here is Philip Wilson Steer's "The Beach at Walberswick". The British impressionist often concentrated on the people on the beach rather than the landscape per se as with other painters in that movement. Finlay notes the dresses of the women on the beach and compares their petticoat frills to the foam found at the sea edge. VG+.

...

20 Aug THONIER. 1997.

Posted at 09:19h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
10.5 x 19.1cm, 2pp card with a reproduced painting by Janet Boulton of a long thorn branch. The title of the work is the name of a type of French fishing boat that strung long trails of hooks after them as a means of increasing the take of the trip, VG+.

...

06 Aug PASTORAL. 1997.

Posted at 09:06h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
7.7 x 7.4cm, 6pp card with two internal panels that read:
TRIMMING
THE
LAMP

and

STOWING
THE
SAIL.
This work is after an early poem by Thomas A. Clark. Lamp trimmers were a specialised role on boats maintaining the many oil lamps safely, stowing the sail was an activity done at the end of the day. Finlay has created a work representing a day at sea and by extension the countryside. VG+.

...

01 Aug B.P. 1997.

Posted at 09:01h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
3.3 x 7.8cm, 4pp outer folder with tipped on inner concertina folded sheet that reads:
t a n k e r

A concrete poem where the length of the spaced out letters reflects the construction of the ship. B.P. Stands for British Petroleum. VG+.

...

28 Jul PROEM. 1997.

Posted at 10:23h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
14.8 x 10.5cm, 2pp, card printed with a drawing by Ron Costley of the front of a boat that is labelled PROEM. The word is similar to POEM and PROW: and there is a stylish beauty to the shape of the front of the ship. However there are other references here to the term "Proem" - firstly to that term invented by El Lissitzky used to refer to his constructivist style based on Malevich's supremacism - and the other meaning - a preface or preamble to a book or speech (the prow being the foremost part of the ship - a physical preamble). The title hence refers all of these different simultaneous meanings. VG+.

...

17 Jul 2 SQUARES. 1997.

Posted at 18:58h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
12.1 x 18cm, 2pp artist's card with a sepia tinted vintage appropriated photograph of two river boats with the sails photo-modified by Gary HIncks to be black squares (seen at an angle). 2 Squares was a children’s book by the Russian artist El Lissitzky which is regarded as a development of Supremacism (following Malevich's Black Square) which the latter called the "Proun". Hence this image is a visual poem representing the half-way house between the Supremacist and the Constructavist. VG+.

...

12 Jul BOATSHELF. 1997.

Posted at 08:20h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
12.9 x 20.9cm, 2pp artist's card with a sepia tinted photograph by Robin Gillanders.The image is of a shelf of model boats made by Finlay - the boats are all placed facing a single direction - making the collection look like a fleet. Boatshelf being a neologism that is similar to bookshelf. VG+.

...

09 Jul VISITOR. 1997.

Posted at 17:37h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1997) 6.4 x 6.8cm, 4pp. Artist's postcard a drawing by Gary Hincks of a pedelo.

A text internally reads:

Visitor
Veni
VIDA.
Vici.

She came
She saw
She sailed
The text references and updates a Latin phrase popularly attributed to Julius Caesar who, according to Appian, used the phrase in a letter to the Roman Senate around 47 BC after he had achieved a quick victory in his short war against Pharnaces II of Pontus at the Battle of Zela, the updating presumably referring to a modern visitation by the boat.

...

08 Jul GROVE. 1997.

Posted at 18:17h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
8 x 16cm, 2pp artist's card with typography by Michael Harvey printed green and lime on white card. The poem reads

GROVE.
FLYING-JIB OR OUTE-JIB. MAIN-STAYSAIL JIB. MAIN-TRYSAL. FORE-STAYSAIL MIZEN-STAYSAIL. FORE-TRYSAIL JIB-HEADED SPANKER

The ship is described by its various masts and sails - the verticality of which reminds Finlay of a grove of trees. The bring colour of the card also evokes vegetation. VG+.

...