Fits and bursts: Development of 'Self help' at the Schwartz Galleries Project space

It is the last week of the 'Self help' show at the Schwartz Gallery's Project space. Thanks to those who have visited the show. If you havn't seen the work and are based in London it is open from today until Sunday.

I have had the idea of making work based on the highlighted text in second hand self help books for a while before I was approached by the curators Patrick and Ismail.

When I met them to discuss the show they were keen to show new work, in keeping with the new Project space's ethos of showcasing fresh work. I mentioned the Self help idea to them and they agreed that was the work they would like to show. Even though I had the idea for a while but the majority of the work would have to be made for the show. The idea had not manifested itself in anything other than the beginnings of my collection and initial thoughts on possible ways of working with the text. When I told the curators about how I envisaged the work as an outcome, it was very different to the final works. Initially I wanted to take quotes from a selection of the books, have them enlarged and printed as vinyl lettering. The vinyl text would then be placed on the wall. However this idea soon passed by the way side. I realised that it was not just the text that the original owners had singled out that was important but the actual marks made to single them out. It became apparent that if vinyl lettering was used I would not be able to accurately depict the markings used to highlight the text.

I then moved on to the idea of using the actual books themselves, I explored the idea of obscuring everything but the highlighted text with the book fixed in an open position.

At first I was drawn to using black graphically. However I found this to have too many negative connotations such as depression and censorship. I also explored the idea of whiting the pages out. However I quickly went off the idea of ‘outing’ the whole page as it made the text which remained [the highlighted] look as if it was lost or floating. When I began to restrict the concealing of text within the parameters of the body of text leaving a margin of paper the pages retained the look and feel of a book. This also had the added aesthetic attribute of retaining the colour of the pages, the yellow aged look. Initially I began experimenting with these different techniques on the pages of an old novel I was given but was now falling part. This experimentation was quick and I did not pay too much attention to detail, preferring to see quickly what each option would look like and what effect my intervention with the pages of the book would have on the reading a viewer might have.

As I said before I was drawn strongly to the blacking out of each individual line as if censoring a document or the black block obscuring the page within the texts parameters. However the negative connotations troubled me. I did not want the work to be viewed as a negative comment on someone’s attempts to make sense of Modern life.

So I explored white as an option, acrylic, gouache and tipex in a Varity of forms. I was drawn to the use of white as I associate it with a cleanliness, clarity, clear mental and physical space.

I continued to wander around London's second hand shops, looking through countless self help books. Looking for scribbles and markings. I was still unsure how what kind of rationale I was going to employ in the selection of marked passages from the books. It would have been easier just to pick entries at random, perhaps making for a more interesting final body of work? I decided that I should set myself the parameter of only utilising the first thing highlighted in the books. I am interested in the primary act, the thought processes invoked in the original readers mind when they decided to make a mark on the book as a aid memoire.

In addition to this I also experimented with the idea of obscuring the rest of the text by attempting to match the colour of the paper using paint to focus the viewer’s attention on the highlighted text. I did like this technique but felt that the paint used while close to the colour of the paper, it actual had the opposite effect to the one desired. Instead of focusing the eye on the marked text it actually caused the eye to wander around the pages trying to make out the other text which had been obscured.

I also bleached the text [didn’t work] and scratched of each of the individual characters from the rest of the page with a scalpel blade. However I didn’t like the effect for two reasons one is that I didn’t like the way the text looked lost floating on the pages and also the tactility of the object became an issue. The scratching had left the pages rough and thin to the extent that text from overleaf began to come through. These are traits of the process that do not necessarily become visible when viewing them from a distance or from a digital image.

As the collection expanded I began to periodically colour photocopy the books open where the first marks had been made. I then used these copies to experiment with a variety of styles and techniques in the hiding of the non-highlighted text.

The development work for this body of work is available for purchase. Specficially the photocopied versions of the books which have been used to experiment and explore ideas. Each of these is signed and dated and is available for £35 [unframed] including UK postage. Contact me to discuss international postage. These developmental pieces represent an important part of the creative journey for this body of work, I have decided to make these pieces that form part of my process available for purchase following a number of enquiries. These developmenatal works are available framed as are the actual works from 'Self help' me using the email below for enquiries.

All are A3 in size the books are 1:1 (dimensions variable) and the dark area surrounding each open book is part of the photocopy. To enquire about the purchase of these or any other work email me on db@davidblackmore.co.uk