My submission  for International Artists’ Books exhibition Love and Music, 2020

Гобеле́н (Tapestry)

DETAILS:
Dimensions:35mm (w) x 45mm (h) x 35mm (d) (closed), 35mm x 4600mm (unfurled)
Weight: 35 grams
Materials: saffron-coloured rayon book cloth, 160gsm caramel-coloured paper, inkjet 140gsm wrap, card.
 
Description 
Six hundred and sixty-two 3mm holes punched along a 13.3 foot long paper strip, accordion-folded into a 120-page book, and wrapped in a printed paper belly-band.

Using a 1:16 scale version of The Bayeux Tapestry as a guide, the exact head position of each of the 626 human figures (embroidered into the original tapestry) were marked onto a 13-foot long strip of 160gsm paper, and punched out as 3mm holes. When the pages are removed from the hardcovers they can be fed and wound through a 15-note mechanical music box, sounding notes.

Title: Multiplane Rostrum (Artists’ Maquette), 2019
Dimensions: 24cm (w) x 28cm (d) x 29.5cm (h)
Materials: wood, Perspex, acrylic, metal, brass

Description:
Multiplane Rostrum (Artists’ Maquette) is a ½ scale model of piece of equipment used in the creation of stop frame animation. The handmade scale model is a speculative sculptural piece with mechanism with frame, scrolling, trays and moveable arms. The various mechanisms allow visual materials such a filters to be passed below and in front of a camera in and out of the frame. The sculpture, which is a sculpture on what an animator needs to create an animation, speculates on the various processes involved in making abstract animation.

‘Traditionally, experimental animators have avoided the standard animation stand and the production-line procedures of the commercial studio. One common bond among all experimental animators is that, in varying degrees, they personalize their equipment and techniques, as does any fine artisan or craftsman. Some animators have gone far beyond the conventional mechanisms by building complex devices…’
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 - Cecile Starr & Robert Russett from ‘Experimental Animation’, 1976’.

This coming March 2020 I am giving a lecture at The Royal Drawing School alongside Joan Ashworth about our involvement with Stories in Transit. All welcome.

''Joan Ashworth and Lee Shearman will unfold their contribution to Stories in Transit, Marina Warner’s project working with refugees in Palermo, Sicily that uses storytelling and narrative games to exercise the imagination of the participants.

Joan and Lee have worked with one of the stories, as told by Dine Diallo; one of the young refugees from Guinea. After an oral telling of the story by Dine, participants in the workshop made drawings in response, which were then translated into articulated silhouette and translucent paper cut-out figures. Using this artwork as material for animation, participants filmed sequences using a variety of creative techniques.
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Joan and Lee will discuss and reflect on the processes involved in creating the animation, show examples of the paper puppets as well as screening clips from the film so far and reveal the next steps for the Stories In Transit project. shall be discussing our contribution to Stories in Transit, Marina Warner’s project working with refugees in Palermo, Sicily that uses storytelling and narrative games to exercise the imagination of the participants. We will discuss and reflect on the processes involved in creating the animation, show examples of the paper puppets as well as screening clips from the film so far and reveal the next steps for the Stories In Transit project.''

ANIMATING 'STORIES IN TRANSIT'
March 18th 2020, 6.45pm
Royal Drawing School, Shoreditch Studios, 19-22 Charlotte Road, London, EC2A 3SG
£5 / £3.50 concessions

Read more about Stories in Transit website, or my reflection here.

Two Rotoscope Gifs I create in Procreate. I traced two instances of wind-blown tarpaulin.

For sound production for upcoming animation projects I am using Logic Pro X since migrating my sound work from PC  (Cakewalk & Soundforge). I am also using a U-PhoriaUMC404HD external sound card together with a Boss Micr BR-80 and a Sigma TM-15e+.

PAPER ENGINEERING: I designed, illustrated and assembled a miniature paper pop-up kiosk/ vending machine based on The Penguincubator. It was illustrated in Indesign, printed and assembled from two sheets of A4 180gsm card. It is a speculative maquette that suggests a book dispensary. 

I visited The Asset Strippers by Mike Nelson at Tate Britain.

'Mike Nelson has transformed the heart of Tate Britain into somewhere between a sculpture court and an asset strippers’ warehouse, carefully selecting objects from a past world, the post-war Britain that framed his childhood. Nelson’s project has been informed by the Duveen Galleries’ origins as the first purpose-built sculpture galleries in England, intended to rival the sculpture court at the British Museum and the V&A’s cast room, turning the neo-classical galleries into a warehouse of monuments to a lost era and the vision of society it represented.'

I was contacted by Heloise Laurie who is writing her PhD at Paris University. She asked for my recollections my experience of an earlier exhibition by Mike Nelson entitled 'The Coral Reef', which I had seen back in 2011.

Do you remember how you first heard about this work and what led you to visit it?
I first heard about Mike Nelson and his work back in 1999 when was I studying Fine Art in Portsmouth University, UK between 1997-2000. As part of the course, practicing artists would visit our University each week to talk about themselves and their work. One of those artists was Mike Nelson. During his artists talk  he talked about his early career, inspirations and his work- including installations he had been working on. One in particular was Agent Dickson at The Red Star Hotel- an installation at Hales Gallery, London 1995. It was a kind of space shuttle built from stacked boxes; inside of which was a 'cabin' a small cramped room with a hammock, a painting, some crash helmets, tin post and pans, books. The visual impact of this work - in a red-lit room made quite an impression on me. His discussed his work- which blended fact and fiction- along with slides. It really inspired me - so I actively sought out his work. I saw The Coral Reef for the first time at Matt's Gallery, London back in 2000. At that time Matts Gallery was located on Copperfield Road, London. I think it was the first time The Coral Reef was exhibited. I saw a listing for the exhibition in Time Out. It was the first time I had visited Matt's Gallery also.
 
According to your recollection, how long was your visit of " The Coral Reef " ?
I visited the gallery on my own and I remember vividly the work and I wondered about The Coral Reef for several hours. 

Were there many people that day in the artwork? Did you have to wait to enter or did you feel that you could not go at your own pace inside the work?
When I visited The Coral Reef installation at that time, in the afternoon -the installation was empty! I was fully immersed in the work, on my own, allowed to wonder about the rooms freely. At that time Mike Nelson was not as well known as he has now become.

MINISTRY OF BOOKS @ University of Portsmouth
I helped move The Ministry of Books collection to a new book room. Now the collection of artists' books their own space alongside Zinopolis.

I made a balsa wood cityscape painted in Neon Pink UV paint for an upcoming exhibition at Stour Space

A mock up of a miniature concertina books based on HAL-9000 from 2001; A Space Odyssey. I made this mock up to coincide with the Stanley Kubrick Exhibition at The Design Museum, but the idea was rejected at quite a late stage so I didn't continue with the production of this book. The wrap is based on the control panel and safety warning from the film prop. The cover had red acetate covering a hole cut through. More info about Micro Library books here:  www.microlibrarybooks.com

I was asked by Tom Sowden to submit some artwork to The Blue Notebook (writing on contemporary artists’ books) THE LIVERY OF LUSK & MURK OF ILLUSION 

Read more:
Micro Library Books
​The Blue Notebook

GRAPHIC DESIGN: I redesigned the logo for Ministry of Books at University of Portsmouth, based on Maureen O'Neill's original design. I used indesign to create the circle and traced over Maureen's ministry icon.

My collection of the illustrative wonders that I have picked up at various Illustration and book fairs the last few years. Sorted these out at the start of the Academic year. There has been some great books made this last year.

I am working with the poet Pip Rowson on a series of miniature books to coincide with the upcoming exhibition at The Design Museum ' Moving to Mars'. We set about researching and speculating relocating to Mars.

Arrive, Survive & Thrive Mars Books
Design Museum Moving to Mars Exhibition
Moving to Mars Micro Library Books Collection

I designed and made a pocket-sized pop-up diorama collage. 

I collaborated on a miniature handmade concertina-folded book featuring a poem by writer Pip Rowson. The poem incorporates thirteen captions from fathom charts. This artwork is a full-colour inkjet print on 160gsm paper, which has been cut, scored and folded down into thirty-two 35mm x 50mm pages, and bound in tweed green rayon hard covers. This first edition of 'Fathoms' is part of the Micro Library Books 'Featured Artist' series and is limited to 50 copies.

Dimensions Closed: 35 x 50 x 14mm
32 concertina pages, 160 gsm white paper, inkjet print, tweed green rayon cover, 35 x 50 x 10mm

NEW MICRO LIBRARY BOOK COLLABORATION: LEFT-OVERS by Nick White

I worked with artists illustrator Nick White to produce a miniature handmade concertina-folded book featuring his collages. The collages were created by re-presenting and re-purposing the scraps and offcuts leftover from previous works. This artwork is a full-colour laser print on 160gsm paper, which has been cut, scored and folded down into thirty-two 35mm x 50mm pages, and bound in bright red rayon hard covers. This first edition is part of the Micro Library Books 'Featured Artist' series and is limited to 50 copies.

For more information about Nick White: http://thisisnickwhite.com
For more information about Micro Library Books

Dimensions
Closed: 35 x 50 x 14mm
Unfurled: 1088 x 50mm (approx).

An article about Stories in Transit was featured in Giornale di Sicilia

I made two small abstract collages to be exhibited at my upcoming exhibition at Much Ado Books in Alfriston.

Our stop frame animated film The Great Work is now available to watch online.

The Great Work was filmed over the course of many, many hours using Dragonframe animation software. Individually hand cut paper elements were arranged, photographed, and moved frame by frame to form a series of moving collages.

With accompanying sound design by Robert Stillman.

My latest project involves time lapse photography, the sunrise and shipping lanes of St. Leonards-on-Sea. Using a Canon 1100d, and Dragonframe software I have been filming the horizon from my balcony window. See films here