Ian Hamilton Finlay - Unoriginal Sins

12 Sep A PROPOSAL FOR THE GROUNDS OF THE SERPENTINE GALLERY. 1997.

Posted at 20:28h in Proposals

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
11 x 22cm, 20pp plus two fold outs and leaf patterned boards with tipped on label. A proposal for the grounds of London's Serpentine Gallery which consisted of semi-circle of 8 benches with plaques and a single central plaque in the Meadow Area. The texts are all translations from Vigil talking of a distant view - but each translation takes on different nuances of the original. Translations are by Finlay himself with Jessie Sheeler, Samuel Palmer, C Day Lewis, W F Jackson Knight, Harry Gilonis, John Caryll, and Charles Calverley. Virgil's own Latin quotation is also present on the final bench.
A further plaque again quotes Virgil: "Home, goats, home, replete, the evening star is coming." - a quotation that in which one recognises aspects of Finlay's most famous work - "Evening will come, they sew the blue sail."
A massive carved circular paving stone is also proposed to be placed at the entrance to the gallery listing the latin names of trees that are found near to the gallery. Lettering was drawn by Peter Coates and Andrew Whittle. Maps and cover paper by Gary Hincks.

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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+.

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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+.

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27 Aug A RUBBING POST FOR A WILD BOAR. 1997.

Posted at 16:52h in Proposals

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997 18.4 x 18cm folded printed card folder content of a folded sheet which opens to 36 x 17.5cm, the inner folding is a drawing after a sculpture which is explained thus: A circular post cast in bronze, with plain and rusticated bands alternating, the latter following three of the four types of rustication illustrated in Sebastiano Serlio's Five Books of Architecture: At the top of the post, in raised Roman letters, are the words AGE QUOD AGIS - What you are doing, do thoroughly. The post is designed for a private garden in Provence. 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+.

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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+.

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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+.

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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+.

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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+.

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21 Jul ANTHOLOGY. 1997. ONE OF ONLY 200 COPIES.

Posted at 20:38h in Page Works & Contributions

Edinburgh: Morning Star, 1997
14 x 10.5cm, blue card slipcase content of a 13.5 x 10cm, 28pp plus boards. Artist's book consisting of a number of contributions by Finlay, Harry Gilonis, Jackson Mac Low, Ian Stephen, Graham Rich, Haans Waanders, Simon Cutts, Thomas A. Clark, Pavel Buchler, David Bellingham, Richard Tuttle, Zoe Irvine, Alex Finlay, Simon Patterson, and Lawrence Weiner as well as others. One of only 200 printed. VG+.

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19 Jul TRANSCRIPT. VOLUME 2 ISSUE 1. 1997?

Posted at 14:39h in Page Works & Contributions

Dundee: Transcript Magazine, n.d. (1997?)
26.5 x 21cm, 90pp plus wrappers, Single number of this journal with a lengthy interview with Ian Hamilton Finlay and b/w photographs of Little Sparta with "camptions (sic!) by Finlay which are insightful. VG+.

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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+.

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