Ian Hamilton Finlay - Unoriginal Sins

24 Apr A CELEBRATION OF EARTH AIR FIRE WATER. 1975. UNIQUE TRIAL PROOF IN RED AND DARK RED.

Posted at 20:00h in Object + Paper Multiples

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1975)
15 x 15cm, red and dark red on white ceramic tile with one of Finlay's Heroic Emblems on it. The text "A CELEBRATION OF EARTH AIR FIRE WATER" refers to the role of aircraft carriers during the defining sea battle of the War in the Pacific when the USA destroyed the Japanese fleet. The image of an aircraft carrier with airplanes taking off is an image of a weapon that floats on water, fires missiles, lets its panes go into the air and land on its decks (earth). EARTH, AIR, FIRE, and WATER were believed by classical philosophers to be the fundamental building blocks of nature. This example is unique - a trial print made for Finlay by Kenneth Townsend a specialist in tiles making based in Hastings - Finlay rejected the tile and preferred to release a single brown on white coloured version in an edition of c. 100.

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24 Apr THROUGH A DARK WOOD. MIDWAY. CIRCULAR TILE. 1975.

Posted at 18:23h in Object + Paper Multiples

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1975)
14.8 dia., red on white ceramic tile with one of the Heroic Emblems on it. The text "THROUGH A DARK WOOD. MIDWAY." refers to the defining sea battle of the War in the Pacific when the USA destroyed the Japanese fleet. The image of an aircraft carrier hidden in smoke to prevent air attacks is associated with Dante's opening words from the Inferno "In the middle of our life's journey, I found myself in a dark wood.”. The image on this circular tile is the same as that on the square tile issued at the same time and while the limitation not known for some reason this is a much rare version of the ceramic than the square one.

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21 Apr SELECTED PONDS. 1975.

Posted at 19:12h in Artist's Books

Reno: Wild Coast Poetry Review, 1975
29 x 29cm, 56pp plus pictorial card covers. Artist's book published on the occasion of an exhibition in North Wales with numerous b/w photographs by Dave Paterson of works and views of Little Sparta with commentaries by Bernard Lassus and Stephen Bann in English and German. VG+.

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20 Apr FAMILY. HOMAGE TO SIMON CUTTS. 1975.

Posted at 09:36h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
11.7 x 13.5cm, 4pp. The front of the card has a poem under the title:

Lily has grown
a full stop.
Iris has not<BR
On the back of the card is a photograph by Dave Paterson of a small wooden sculpture by Finlay called "Lily" and the poem is an adaption of a Cutt's poem FAMILY which we believe to be about the latter's children but cannot confirm. Finlay's mild parody references the photograph where an additional floating "leaf" appears to have been attached to the sculpture by wire - almost as if it has grown -the shape of the leaf, is like the round full stop. VG+.

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19 Apr THROUGH A DARK WOOD. MIDWAY. SQUARE TILE. 1975. ONE OF 100 MADE.

Posted at 18:14h in Object + Paper Multiples

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1975)
14.8 x 14.8.cm, red on white ceramic tile with one of the Heroic Emblems on it. The text "THROUGH A DARK WOOD. MIDWAY." refers to the defining sea battle of the War in the Pacific when the USA destroyed the Japanese fleet. The image of an aircraft carrier hidden in smoke to prevent air attacks is associated with Dante's opening words from the Inferno "In the middle of our life's journey, I found myself in a dark wood.”. One of only 100 made. Very scarce object multiple.

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19 Apr BATTLE OF MIDWAY FOURTH JUNE 1942. 1975.

Posted at 16:29h in Object + Paper Multiples

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1975)
15.3 x 15.3cm., purple on white ceramic tile with a design after a drawing by Laurie Clark representing the American and Japanese Fleets during the battle of Midway as bees and hives. The American fleet destroyed most of the ships while the Japanese airplanes were in air and the latter had nowhere to land after launching. The various hives (with the names of the ships) can be seen to be on fire. The vast distance between the ships meant that they never saw each other - and the intervening rosebushes obscuring the hives from each other act as a metaphor for the distance. One of only 100 made. VG+....

10 Apr HOMAGE TO THE L. A. DOUST ART MANUALS. 1975.

Posted at 09:47h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
4.5 x 11cm, 4pp. Black on light brown card with a drawing of ketch boats on the front by what looks like Gary Hincks but is uncredited. Inside is the two line poem:

HOMAGE TO THE L. A. DOUST ART MANUALS
s ketch

The art manuals were a popular adult and child series of books which were meant to teach drawing skills. Finlay uses the front cover drawing as a icon for that activity and makes a joke by adding the s to the name of the boats to make "sketch.VG+.

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09 Apr PIERROT. HOMAGE A GRIS. 1975.

Posted at 09:53h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
16.5 x 13.5cm, 4pp. A b/w photograph of a model airplane made by Finlay has alternative sides of the plane painted in different colours. The homage of Jean Gris the cubist brings to mind his painting of a Pierrot where alternative sides of the actor's clothing are different colours (presumably in part by patching - a symbolism of love for Finlay). Photograph by Dave Paterson. VG+.

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02 Apr THE DIVIDED MEADOWS OF APHRODITE. 1975.

Posted at 09:57h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
15 x 10.5cm, 2pp. A drawing by Gary Hincks of the deck of an aircraft carrier is labelled with the Greek and the English quotation - the divided meadows of Aphrodite. As discussed elsewhere on this site (a blanket in the object multiples section) this does not only reference the verdant landscapes of the classical Greerk gods but also is a sexual metaphor for the goddess' labia. The drawing shows the red path where the planes take off and land on - which is clearly a visual reference to the vaginal opening. VG+

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30 Mar MARINE PROTOTYPES. 1975.

Posted at 10:01h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
14.7 x 11cm, 2pp. Two photographs are shown - one of a harbour with a boat (LH 62 - a trawler) and below it (by Vic Smeed) a commercial image of four modern irons with model numbers and the brand name Sunbeam in front of them. The visual correspondence is in the shape of the front of the irons and the prow of the boat. And the numbers on both images allow Finlay to suggest that the subject of the photographs are prototypes of each other. VG+.

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28 Mar CHERRY STONES. 1975.

Posted at 10:09h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
10.1 x 14.7cm, 2pp. A photograph by Paterson of two model rockets (with wings) coming out of thick cloud (cotton wool) is identified as two V1s of the Kirschkern (Cherry Stone) project. The V1 was the much feared German "flying bomb" that was used indiscriminately against the British population in and around London during the blitz
Much like a cherry stone that one bites onto without warning, these bombs would fall without warning (if you heard the sound of them falling then you were safe as the auditory waves followed the missile's path because of speed - cf the theme of the wonderful Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon)> A cherry stone might hurt your crunching teeth and the German codename for the missile project reinforces that consideration. VG+.

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25 Mar SAVED BY HELICOPTER. 1975.

Posted at 10:48h in Object + Paper Multiples

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1975)
12 x 12cm., olive green and black on white ceramic tile. The image is a newspaper story of how the Morning Star ran aground and that a boat called the Twilight came to the rescue. Clearly the story appealed to Finlay due to the coincidences of the names. One of 100 published. Very scarce.

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