Robin Gillanders - Unoriginal Sins

08 Sep INSCRIPTIONS (AKA LYRE). 1995.

Posted at 20:16h in Invitation Cards

Kiel: Galerie Sfeir-Semler, 1995
11.5 x 10cm, 4pp, Artist's card with a photograph by Robin Gillanders of a piece of rusted corrugated iron against a wall in Little Sparta under which Finlay has placed the word LYRE. The ruts in the iron look like the various lines of a stringed lyre.
This is in fact an announcement card for an exhibition of ceramic jars, slates, neons and paperworks by Finlay in Germany. For some reason it is been mis-categorised as an artists' card in the WIld Hawthorn Press; listings of artist's card and while it is indeed an original card work we have returned it to the correct designation. VG+.

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13 Jul THREE WILD FLOWERS. 1995.

Posted at 13:03h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
10.3 x 10.3cm, 12pp plus typographic card covers. A b/w photograph by Robin Gillanders of wild flowers in the Picpus Cemetary where many of the guillotined dead during the last months of the Terror were buried in mass graves and a text by Finlay:

THREE WILD FLOWERS
Julie Boissard
Adelaide Lienard
Agathe Greaude

These are names of three of the women who were murdered during the Terror and buried in the cemetery. Finlay's suggestion that they be seen as wild flowers re-emerging from the ground is a beautiful memorial. VG+.

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10 Jun 1762 – 1794. 1995.

Posted at 13:15h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995 11 x 10.7cm, 12pp plus card covers. Artist's book with a b/w photograph of the grave of Andre de Chenier from the Picpus cemetary (by Robin Gillanders) and a concrete poem by Finlay in the shape of a guillotine blade (the text reads Andre Chenier Des Illes Grecques HORIZON d'acier quie separa noting the fact that the poet was killed by the revolution by the blade.) VG+. ...

21 May BROUNT.

Posted at 13:38h in Artist's Books

Eindhoven: Peninsula, 1995
30 x 21cm, 22pp. Original printed card covers. Artist's book with 6 b/w images by Robin Gillanders of a dog bowl with the name Brount on it. Robespierre wasn't all bad - he greatly loved his dog Brount and took it everywhere. This book, one of my favourites, has the tale of how Robespierre bought his dog and the walks he went on together. VG+

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05 Oct A REMEMBRANCE OF LORAINE NIEDECKER. 1994.

Posted at 17:25h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
15.3 x 14.0cm, 2pp artist's postcard with a b/w reproduced photograph by Robin Gillanders of a faux gravestone for Loraine Niedecker. VG+.

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23 Jul SEASONS. 1994. ONE OF 35 SIGNED & NUMBERED PHOTOGRAPHS. FROM “DEAR STIEGLITZ”.

Posted at 20:21h in Photographs

Peninsula: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
50 x 40cm, silver gelatine print. The photograph of the stream by Robin Gillanders is combined with a short poem by Finlay.

the brown stream
the black stream
the blue stream
the silver stream

The same phrase is repeated with only the colour changing each time. Gillander's photograph is in b/w so one might imagine it in different colours as per the poem - and the water having a different history each time - silver being related to fish or speed, blue in reflections or the sea, black from coal or dirt or darkness and brown from pollution or soil.
This edition is from a portfolio called ‘Dear Stieglitz,’ named in homage to Alfred Stieglitz, the photographer and gallery owner who published the art-photography journal ‘Camera Work’ in the early Twentieth century.
On the reverse is a label with details of the portfolio and image and it is signed by Finlay and numbered in pencil from the edition of only 35 copies. VG+.

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