Sandra Brownlee notebooks, Image © Keith McLeod |
Sandra Brownlee catalogue, Image © Keith McLeod |
Sandra Brownlee notebooks Detail, Image © Keith McLeod |
Fast forward 14 years. Sandra has another solo show, Departures and Returns, this time at the Mary Black Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her signature woven artworks adorn the walls along with framed textile collages that are pages excised from cloth notebooks, and a few hand-stitched pieces. At the end of the gallery hangs a shelf with a row of her notebooks, except this time they remain firmly shut with a "Please Do Not Touch!" sign. The notebooks beckon, like Lorelei singing to wary sailors, but I reluctantly obey the sign. The closed notebooks create tension as they tempt viewers to step behind the curtain to get a glimpse of Sandra's imaginings. On the other hand, the closed notebooks maintain the mystery of the creative process. They make me wonder and inspire me to do a deep dive into my own sketchbooks.
* you can read part two here
2 comments:
I loved reading this Karen! Such beautiful writing, such a beautiful subject. But I am biased...thanks for sharing this. X lcw
notebooks/sketchbooks/journals or even cerebral compost collections...those beautifully bound volumes work well as an installation
i rather like the notion of
forcing the viewer to imagine contents rather than allowing unfettered access
Post a Comment