Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
17.0 x 6.3cm, 4pp outer folder content of two "cards" both 17.0 x 6.3cm, 1pp but one is a red and black drawing by Gary Hincks of a rudder and the other a transparent plastic with the word "Varnish" at the top. The plastic placed over the drawing reproduces the shine of the varnish one finds on most rudders. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
9.5 x 5.7cm, 4pp artist's card with a drawing of coiled boat ropes by Gary Hincks. Inside the folded card is a poem by Finlay:
BOAT LORE
Sails
are sails
but ropes
are
sheets
or stays.
On one level a simple explanation of boating terms (sailboat sheets are ropes or lines that are used to trim a sail), on another a deeper consideration of tautology and meaning. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
11.3 x 7.6cm, 4pp artist's card with a drawing of a ship by Gary Hincks printed black on blue. Inside the folded card is a poem by Finlay:
PORTMADOC NAMES.
of fathers
mothers
owners
aunties
ships
Finlay notes the tradition in Pormadoc of naming boats after relatives - and in the final line of the work he equates the ships to being as much alive as the characters they are named after. VG+.
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+.
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.
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+.
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+.
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+.
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+.
