Friday, 2 December 2016

Upcycling Books as Art

Last night, I attended the One of a Kind Show & Sale at the Enercare Centre and came across some interesting artwork that reminded me of our class discussion on using books in nontraditional formats (for example, the U2 concert). Noelle Hamlyn's artwork, called "Bookwork," upcycles old books that have been collected from estate sales, book fairs, charity drives or have been donated. The term upcycling refers to an object that has been re-purposed into something new to give it value. Many of the books she collected were mouldy or damaged, so probably no one would have read them anyways. The spins or ends of the books are cut and placed in a shadow box in an aesthetically pleasing order, many of them arranged by colour. 

Source: Noelle Hamlyn
This collection showcases Jane Austen and Romance novels

Source: BlogTO

The following quote is from Noelle's website as she describes her work: "I hope to ‘reframe’ and repurpose them while respecting their past lives. I am inspired by the textual stories these books tell - that is, I wish to celebrate them as texts, but also the way it feels to touch them. In an increasingly digital world, it is with joy that I invite you to share in this experience, and to bring your own stories with you as you consider my work."

 This reminds me of the encoding challenge where we merged the physical and digital worlds. Taylor, Evelyn and I encoded three of Dickinson's envelope poems, and we tried to respect the physicality, "the past lives," of each poem and represent that in our code. We wanted to keep the stories of the texts alive through the different functions TEI provided us with. Noelle also seems to respect the stories books tell and has found a new use for old and tired books that keeps their stories alive. 

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8 comments:

  1. Pauline Szczesniak3 December 2016 at 12:07

    I have heard of this before, it was trending for a while on Pinterest. There is a company you can hire to come in and build you a fake bookshelf wall, solely for decorative purposes. That is interesting taht the artist wishes to respect the books past lives, most of the projects I have seen either decimate the book, or only see it as a decoration.

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    1. Laura Gillis5 December 2016 at 09:41

      I think it's interesting as well that Noelle wants to respect the past life of the book instead of decimating it for artistic purposes. I've seen some books made into clocks, but I'm not sure how those books were collected.

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  2. Unknown4 December 2016 at 21:13

    What neat artwork! I have to admit I am usually somewhat annoyed at art or crafts that involve drastically altering (destroying) books to get their results, but it's so interesting that Noelle frames it as wanting to respect the past lives of these books, and it definitely makes me want to set aside my less positive feelings about it! I wonder if turning a book into a non-readable form can ever really be respecting the past life of the book though? But I'm kind of playing the devil's advocate since I like the art a lot!

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    1. Laura Gillis5 December 2016 at 09:56

      I completely agree with you, Evelyn. I don't think destroying a book is worth making artwork, but I think it's interesting that Noelle purchased or found these books in a decrepit or worn state and they may be unreadable, have been thrown in the garbage, or buried in a box in the basement anyways. This could be a good way to showcase the titles or covers of books that are deteriorating, which could spark memories of books you've read. I think there's definitely different ways to look at this type of artwork!

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    2. Unknown5 December 2016 at 13:16

      Yes I've seen these before and, as someone who went to went to an arts based high school (where all I chose to do with my time was collage) I'm actually pretty into these. They're a bit hockey but, hey. I'm actually kind of on the opposite end of the conversation here though. I've "destroyed" a lot of books, but in this "destruction" I've also kind of saved them. Our art department had TONS of used books donated to it, books that would not be read or even touched if I hadn't taken my scissors to them. I actually talked about my collaging in my application to the BHPC program! I think I'm okay with this kind of manipulation because I'm just so not into the "fetishization" of books - treating them like they're these sacred things (rare books are another thing - I won't take my scissors to those). I actually got into a semi-heated argument with someone over dog-earing texts. They just couldn't BELIEVE I would do something so terrible to a book! Good thing I didn't mention my collage to them.

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    3. Unknown5 December 2016 at 15:25

      I totally missed in your post that the books were already badly damaged, Laura!They look so pristine in the pictures. I hadn't thought about it in terms of books being preserved that otherwise would have been destroyed. And it's true what Taylor says too, there is a bit of a fetishization of books as sacred that's maybe pretty silly. You and Taylor are managing to convince me pretty expertly! (As long as you're not dog-earing library books, Taylor!)

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    4. Laura Gillis5 December 2016 at 19:40

      I agree with you, Taylor! Since those books donated to your department and probably wouldn't have been read anyways, then that's a great use for them. I'd like to see how you made collages of those books!

      I do think we may be fetishizing books as these untouchable objects. But once you buy a book, it is yours to do whatever you want with! I wouldn't recommend making a collage of a rare book where there is only one copy, but I don't think anyone would!

      Soon we're gonna see Evelyn with this upcycled art hanging in her apartment.

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  3. Unknown8 December 2016 at 10:08

    I keep the dog-earring to my own books, yes!

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