"Binding handcrafted books for me is not merely a way of turning back the clock, but a way of addressing contemporary issues, both environmental and social as well as aesthetic."
(Michael O'Brien, Bookbinder)
"A Step Back In Time", short documentary about Oamaru's iconoclastic bookbinder Michael O'Brien. Director: Moss Bowering–Scott, Research: Libby Dallison, Executive Producers: Richard Bell and Steve Bloxham, New Zealand Broadcasting School, CPIT, Uploaded to YouTube on 16 August 2010.
Review of exhibition titled 'More is More' which opened 5 August 2012 in Gallery C3, Te Ara Hihiko, Massey University Campus, Wellington, New Zealand. The show was curated by Annette O'Sullivan, Matt Clapham and John Clemens.
"Typography forms a strong component of the Visual Communication Design programme and this existing knowledge is built upon in the Screen Printing for Design and Contemporary Letterpress papers. There was a celebration of disciplines on show, with students from many areas of the College of Creative Arts: Graphic Design, Textiles, Illustration, Fine Arts and Photography included. Many students are attracted to these papers as they provide an experimental space to explore ideas and techniques that can be applied at a later stage to other projects. Although based around traditional printmaking techniques students also employ digital technologies and equipment such as laser cutters to answer the project briefs."
(Nick Kapica, 20 August 2012, Design Assembly)
Fig.1 Hannah Milner "Our Darkest Day", wooden type printing, digital printing.
"whilst the application of design is multiplying exponentially, it is also loosing its validity as an authentic cultural icon. It has become synonymous with cloning the face of global culture itself, more often representing the uniformity of mass globalisation, rather than reflecting the facets of cultural difference and diversity.
The cultural attributes of difference and diversity have been fundamentally weakened, and like face that has undergone cosmetic surgery, the result is a facsimile vaguely familiar but disturbingly without a true sense of identity. It is everyone's and no one's, and belongs in no single place more than another. ...
Design has become omnipresent within Culture, as it has been adopted as a convenient badge to add value and market commodity, and to signify identity. Following Designer era of 1980's, the added value of design was replaced by design as cultural value, embodied in leading Brands of the 1990's. ...
in the 21st Century the task of capturing Culture has become more and more difficult in terms of expressing culture through the medium of design. Design increasingly struggles for a clear sense of definition, and one is left asking, what can Culture really mean today, if it is no longer tied to consumer lifestyle? We remain in a post–contemporary state where we require a redefinition of meaning, value and identity. ...
The uncertainty of a designed fusion Culture has replaced the certainty of traditional cultural monoculture. Which in turn has been diluted by an obsession with 'cultural materialism'. What remains of the original cultural sources are being plundered in order to restock our lack of creative DNA. The net result is an erosion of the remaining authentic sources, but also the creation of a 'cultural time lag' which has been generated by a convergence of trans–cultural fusions, hybridisation, and of recurrent cultural cross referencing."
(David Carlson on 21 Mar 21 2011, David Report)
Fig.1 paper sculptures made by Jennifer Collier [http://jennifercollier.co.uk/].
"My work has a distinctive hand crafted quality that pays respect to all forms of mid century design, folk and ethnic art, as well as current and future trends.
Each piece combines the hand cutting, folding and scoring of a wide range of papers and card that are further worked on to create patterned and textured surfaces. They are then used to build scenes in box frames which are often complex and consist of many layers. This process means that each item of work is truly individual with no two pieces the same.Influenced by the natural world each piece is manipulated to become an intriguing place, a glimpse into another world of fiction and fairytale.
Each piece of work is handmade in my studio in the North West of the U.K."
(Helen Musselwhite)