Assignment 2: Leporello

Documentation of my screen printed Leporello Directed by David Lynch. Ten pages + two page colophon, all pages have at least two layers, while the tenth page has three. This accordion folded limited edition zine measures 5.25 x 4.25" and is centred on the feature films of David Lynch's filmography. This zine serves as a tribute to one of my favourite directors, his work has been influential to me as both an artist and person.  

 

Making my Leporello

  ヾ(´▽｀;)ゝ Some documentation in the making ヾ(´▽｀;)ゝ 
                     of my Leporello 

Cutting & folding paper 

Cut paper ready for folding

Stacks upon stacks of paper 

Paper mock-up

 

Paper mock-up

Images prepared with mineral oil

Preparing images with mineral oil

Placing images to be exposed on screen

Images burned into the silk screen

Screen printing pages 

Army of Glinda test prints 

♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪

Assignment 3: Altered book

Book cover

Table of contents

Chapter title

Beadwork details

Beaded page

Beaded page

Stitching details

I started this assignment considering the discussions we had in class regarding the project. I found that hearing about the reasons other students brought books to alter was helpful. Because I did not wish to alter a book I had an attachment to, I searched for a book that I felt needed improvement. 

I found a book at the thrift store titled “Alberta in the 20th Century: The Birth of The Province 1900-1910” and edited by Tim Byfield. It’s volume two of a twelve part series that reflects upon the history of Alberta. After identifying that this book was authored in the early 1990s, it didn’t take long for me to figure out that it was one that did not consider Indigenous perspectives. In this book that contained hundreds of pages, there was only one chapter dedicated to Indigenous experiences and history in Alberta. This chapter (only about 10 pages in total) was titled “The mismanagement and the misapprehension of the unhappy Indians.” I was really unsettled by this title, it felt reflective of the Indigenous erasure I had noticed in the book overall. 

Historically Indigenous perspectives and Ways of Knowing have been systematically erased and silenced. Most notably through the implementation of the Indian Residential School system. These were institutions ran by the Catholic, Anglican, and Presbyterian Churches, that isolated Indigenous children from their families, to assimilate them into the white, western, Eurocentric society. This was achieved through the passing of the Indian Act, created in 1876. I found references to residential school in this chapter of the book, alongside images of the children who were forced to attend these “schools” where they faced significant harm and abuse. Several members of my family have attended residential school (and day school), and the last residential school closed in 1996. That means that at the time this book was published, First Nations children were still attending residential schools. I find that extremely disturbing. 

I wanted to consider the idea of history, to consider treaty relationships, to question who gets the right to have their histories told, and accurately represented? History is often considered evidence, and the hardcover form of the book feels relevant, as history cannot be changed, it's "set in stone".... solid, like the hardcover found on this book. I wanted to bring attention to this part of Albertan history, to highlight the impact that residential schools had and continue to have on Indigenous communities. Beading has been used to document oral history and treaty making. I decided to bead the pages of this chapter. I chose to bead around the borders of photos of the children at residential schools with orange beads --- I chose the orange colour to allude to the Orange Shirt Day movement associated with The National Day for Truth & Reconciliation, I thought about the phrase "Every Child Matters." I carefully stitched around the photos, bead by bead. Beading is a practise that is significant to many Indigenous cultures, and is a symbol of the cultures that the residential schools sought to eliminate. The practice of beading is an Indigenous technology, and the beads in my piece are found alongside western technologies of writing and bookmaking. Seeing these two technologies alongside one another asserts the importance, and significance of Indigenous technologies and knowledge systems. Beading these photos and this chapter was an act of resistance and a reminder, that despite attempted assimilation, Indigenous Peoples are still here, and we are still practicing our cultures. The beads stitched into these pages create an Indigenous presence and show that while we might not have history books written about us, we have always had a physical presence on these lands.

Nadia Myre: Beading the Indian Act

Nadia Myre's Beading the Indian Act (2000-2002) was a huge inspiration to how I wanted to approach the altered book assignment.