Drawing on the ground / Jan Davis
- Bib ID:
- 6936341
- Format:
- Book
- Author:
- Davis, Jan, 1952-, author, artist
- Description:
-
- [Brisbane?] : Jan Davis, 2015
- ©2015
- 1 volume (approximately 192 unnumbered pages) : colour illustrations ; 23 x 32 cm
- Summary:
-
This artist's book is a reflection on the drawing of sustenance from the land. It contains handwritten texts based on settler and explorer's garden and farm diaries accompanied by carbon paper drawings. The artist was supported by the 2014-2015 Siganto Foundation Artists' Books Creative Fellowship at the State Library of Queensland, where she examined diaries and farm records from the John Oxley collection. The content is loosely chronological, beginning with the labour or activity of the First Australians, as recorded by artifacts such as grindstones or woven baskets, supplemented with the recorded observations of settlers and explorers who saw the outcome of Aboriginal labour, whether it was extensive seed caches, finely woven nets, or freshly burned swathes of country. The book concludes in 1915, and focuses increasingly on the farm work undertaken by and recorded by women. The 'landscape' form of the book and its binding mimics the Labour Book from the Glengallan Station Records, which recorded the daily labouring of a large team of station employees. The artist writes, "Through my own labour I gardened afresh in the social compost of others to produce a labour-infused artist's book which explores what it means, or comes to mean, when we exert physical labour to draw sustenance from the ground, when we keep ourselves alive through our engagement with the land, the earth, the ground. 'Drawing on the ground' is part diary, part history, part fiction, part autobiography; a response to labouring, and to the labour of making and keeping the records."
- Notes:
-
- Limited edition of 5 copies, each of which are unique.
- National Library's SR copy is no. 2/5, signed by the artist, and is accompanied by a copy of the artist's statement.
- Binding:
- Bound by Fred Pohlmann in the style of a 19th century farm labour book. Half bound in red kangaroo skin with black buckram. Red stained page edges.
- Subject:
- Other authors/contributors:
- Pohlmann, Fred, binder
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
You may copy under some circumstances, for example you may copy a portion for research or study. Order a copy through Copies Direct to the extent allowed under fair dealing. Contact us for further information about copying.
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 2015
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
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