Little SpartaL: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
18.2 x 11cm, 4pp printed outer folder content of 4pp sheeet with the text:
The present order.
Order the present.
Present the order.
This is a "postscript" to one of Finlay's best known works "The Present Order" (with Nicholas Stone) which takes the original's text and reworks it. The proposal is also to be cut on an unworked block of stone selected at the quarry face.
VG+.
Edinburgh, Scotland: Morning Star Publications, 1991
18 x 25.5cm printed publisher's envelope content of a 24 x 16.5cm, 4pp (top folding) folded card with a silkscreen image in green and black on beige with the poem:
pool
fall
pool
fall
pool
fall
rill
over an image of green ferns. A concrete poem which is denoted as a "proposal" by the Press and we have placed it in that category.
This is one of 250 signed and numbered copies from the collaborating artist Solveig Hill. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
16.4 x 14.9cm, outer folder content of a concertina 8pp insert printed one side only. A proposal for an "abbreviated doric temple" built on a hillside with four doric pillars but only completing part of a semi-circle. Finlay offers that the structure:
"embodies the original meaning of templum as a space marked out for divination. The stylobate is complete; the part-entabulature and supporting columns delineate "sacred" areas of the sky and, with the autere Latin inscription, frame the "everlasting" - also ephermeral - "temples: of the clouds."
The temple has the phrase "Aetema templa caeli" which translates to "the everlasting temples of the sky" which was cited by Varro in his De Lingua Latina.
There are three drawings by Mark Stewart - plans, sections and side elevations as well as an in situ drawing.
Sadly the printing of the inner pages has been poorly finished and there is sett off between the pages - else VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
23.4 x 18cm, 4pp. A proposal for a permanent installation in a new art museum planned for Germany. The work consists of a sentence from Saint-Just in four different languages:
THE NATIVE LAND IS NOT THE LAND IT IS THE COMMUNITY OF FEELINGS
on the ground of a 60 x 60m terrace. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
23.2 x 12.5cm, 8pp. A proposal for a public work at the Botanic Gardens, University of Durham where a post of green oak is carved with a combination of numbers that are rearranged in each row (as a "method " used by bellringers) - Finlay notes this references the nearby Cathedral with its bells and the foxglove plants that also have bells. Three watercolour paintings by Ron Costley are reproduced. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
20.9 x 14.8cm, 12pp, card covers and printed dust jacket. A proposal for a public work at Tout Quarry, in Portland, Dorset in the form of an artist's book - the intent is to use the giant blocks of stone that are abandoned in the quarry and have them carved on the upper face and along the sides with an inscription 'Gods of the Earth / Gods of the Sea' from Virgil's Aeneid Book III. The full original text is "Gods of the Earth / Gods of the Sea, Gods who rule over storms, give us a wind to help our voyage and may your breath bring us aid."
The block will have an image of a net (where there are knots will be mechanically drilled holes and the lines by light chisling) and deeper letter forms. There are two drawings by Gary Hincks and Nicholas Sloan is also credited.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
11.6 x 9.2cm, 16pp plus card covers and dust jacket with title label. A proposal for the Gyle Shopping Centre, Edinburgh which consisted of seven bollards near a landscaped area each with two boat names and registration number etched on them one above the other to create seven short poems. Drawings by John Andrew and Gary Hincks. In the notes Finlay explains each poem and its Greek reference.
One sich poem is:
OLIVE
LEAF
BCK 210
SERENE
BF46
which creates an appeal for peace. Finlay notes a Shakespeare quotation "and peace proclaims olives of endless age".
VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
34.2 x 29.2cm, green on white paper offset lithograph in a folder with a drawing by Annika Sandell of the proposal which is a version of a textual work LITTLE FIELDS LONG HORIZONS that Finlay has utilised in several types of works including artist's books and early prints. The garden is tapered and thus Finlay wishes to create walls with the texts to reflect classical perspectives - thus : "The existing garden tapers as if in emulation of Renaissance perspective drawings. The proposed design exploits this by the division into terraces on slightly different levels with steps between. The theme of perspective is finally given expression in the text which is realised in stone as part of the three dividing walls.". VG in like folder.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1993)
21 x 8cm, 4pp proposal by Finlay for a sculptural work to be built in Willam Shenstone's The Leasowes in the form of an artist card.
The internal drawing by Annet Stirling is of the proposed stone obelisk which bears a text "From this spot may be seen the works of Walter Somer's forgemasters inadvertent manufacturers of parts for the Iraqi super-gun. Citius elephantem subala celes - sooner could you hide an elephant under your armpit".
This is unusually a political work by Finlay - Sadam Hussain had attempted to build several super gun under the title of Project Babylon. The first gun had a bore of 350 mm (13.8 inches), and a barrel length of 46 metres (151 feet). Finlay wanted the work to be build in the grounds of the house near Halesowen. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
12.7 x 16.3cm, 4pp with 1pp transparent leaf internally:
on the left and right of the internal pages are colour photographs of two metal sculptures - both wheel barrows one carrying fallen oak leaves and the other flowering pots. The photographs were taken by Antonia Reeve. The text on the leaf reads:
Be good and with me walk/The old devalued park/Where autumn has set in. - a line from a poem by the American poet Karl Shapiro.
The work shows the two seasons of Autumn and Spring - with the contents of the barrow reflecting the gardener's tasks at each time. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
10.8 x 10.4cm, 16pp plus patterned boards. The proposal here takes the form of a photograph of the site with a pull back tipped on flap that shows the landscape without the lake side temple and when pulled aside one can see the proposed building. Saint-Just was termed the "Angel of Death" by his opponents during the Terror because he was often the delegate who announced the name of those to be arrested (and often killed) at the National Assembly. Apollo is the Greek god of amongst other things justice. Both might be regarded as being capable of severe judgement. Photomontage by Peter Rogan.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
16.5 x 10cm, 24pp plus endpapers and card wrappers with printed dustjacket. Nine works offered as a "proposal for a forest" which were installed in time for the 1995 State Garden Show at Landesgartenschau, Grevenbroich. The various interventions in the landscape mostly take quotations from German classical literature and place them on benches, tree plaques, wooden signposts and other appropriate interventions. Paintings by Ron Costley above descriptions by Finlay.
