MELBOURNE ART BOOK FAIR
Under a stained glass roof, creative booklovers unite for the annual Melbourne Art Book Fair, hosted by the National Gallery of Victoria.
At an art book fair, anything goes. There are no rules about what is or isn't an art book — it's an inclusive community, with a niche for everyone (even me). I shared a table with my friend and fellow photographer, Sarah Abad (we share an affinity for tangible photographic vessels).
5 Press (always one of my favourite tables) is a collective of Melbourne-based print makers, including August Carpenter whose monochrome monoprints and hand-bound books posess the gravitas of unique and fragile objects echoing the landscapes they represent (watch this space for a possible collaboration).
Rohan Hutchinson and Perimeter Editions launched the highly anticipated, poetic and melancholic, visceral and tactile, An error has occured. "The final works comprise of two components. The first is a series of large-format photographs that capture the beauty, enormity, tonality and specificity of the winter landscape. The second is a series of physical and chemical reworkings of these photographic prints... The works act as both a poignant allegory for the global resonance of our actions and as a précis on the limits and potentials of the photographic medium, taking Hutchinson’s research-based practice to new creative terrains in the process."
Libby of Momento Pro introduced me to fellow Australian Photobook of the Year Finalist Cameron Cope, and Daniel Boetker-Smith, Director of the Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive amongst other things, suggested talking to Carine Thévenau who, I've since discovered, created The Sustainable Print Project which "embraces the transient nature of non-archival printing processes" and "the ephemerality of natural materials."
I managed to sneak off to one programmed talk, laughing along as superstar book designer Evi O elaborated on the art of book cover design. I also found inspiration, solace and memento mori at NGV Triennial.
As with many things in life, I wish I had more time, but all-in-all, a weekend well spent, chatting to a group of people with whom I am very much on the same page.
