PDP - Deborah Wrigglesworth

   Deborah Wrigglesworth has spent a lifetime dealing with paper. She's obviously very enthusiastic about her work, and came prepared to instil us with the same degree of enthusiasm. Mind you, the prospect of free samples did a lot to guarantee a good turnout.
   We all got a thick pack of samples, and Debo talked us through them, one at a time. It's much easier to get a feel for paper weight when you're holding, say, a 100 gsm sheet in one hand and a 175 gsm sheet in the other. And good paper is lovely to hold. It's obviously addictive.

   Interesting to hear about the papermaking process, too. Sounds dull if you read about it, but Deborah had the enthusiasm to make the subject come alive. I'm keen to visit a paper mill to check it out for myself. Maybe a college trip next year? Deborah works for D S Smith, and they sound like good people, but both their mills are down south, way too far away.
   This lecture was extremely useful to me, given my attraction to the printmaking field. I've been unhappy with the way my linocuts come out - but where lies the problem? Could be the roller - so I've bought a decent one. Or is it the paper? I've always taken it off the shelf in the print room, and have no idea whether it's suitable or not. So I looked up suitably types, and went looking - but no joy, not in Manchester. Eventually I had to make a special trip to Intaglio Printmakers - lovely shop - in Southwark, to load up on samples. If it still isn't right, then it's my printing technique, or the ink.

 

   

 I was bitten by the paper bug on Tuesday. When I'm making my portfolio over Easter, I'll also be making a giant version to keep my paper stock in, where the cat can't sit on it.

   Oh yeah, sorry for calling her Helen.

Bullshitter of the Year 2013 (runner-up)

  The Fairway, Higher Hillgate - formerly the Flying Dutchman - is, according to the sign outside, "Pub of the Year 2013". Pretty good, huh?

 

 And then you see what's written below, in much smaller letters:

 

First class bullshit!

Things to do when you're forced to go shopping.

   So there you are, fainting with boredom. You look around for something, anything, to break the monotony. And then you see it...

 

...bad typography!

   There's plenty of interesting typography to look at in the perfume section of Boots, but it can't all be good. The problem here is a matter of scale. The logo looks fine on the bottles below, but blow it up to this size and the gap between the N and the I yawns like the gates of hell.

   And in reverse...

   This doesn't look too bad, though I'm not sure about the short T. But when you reduce it...

 

  The T screams "Help me! Help me!"

  People in Boots thought I was nuts taking these pics.

   

PDP - Keywords at the Tate

The Keywords exhibition at Tate Liverpool tied in nicely with what we’re currently doing in context, so Gary had us all bussed down to see it. And they’re charging a pretty penny to see it too, £8 for civilians, though we got in for £5.

And…it wasn’t worth it.

Raymond Williams’ book Keywords  is a collection of essays on the changing meaning and usage of 130 words. The Tate has taken this concept and twisted it to frame a collection of artwork and images from the 1980’s. Words scrawled large on the wall –

Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

- were represented by pictures on the facing wall. You would assume these artworks would be logically placed opposite their keyword; but no, the artwork is crammed shoulder to shoulder along, while the keywords sprawl in a leisurely manner. The result is the near impossibility of equating the one with the other.

Maybe just as well, because the artworks don’t really fit the categories. There was a painting of an oak tree. Where was that supposed to go? I’d have had to put it under folk. But no, folk means, apparently, the troubles in Northern Ireland. Whereas to most people folk means nasal singing and morris dancing.

Another room held more stuff scattered across large black carpets, which we weren’t allowed to stand on. Again, keywords were scrawled on the walls, but I had no idea what they pertained to.

The Tate management had decided to use the Keyword concept as an excuse to haul out a bunch of artworks they already owned and charge us loads of money to see them

Yet if we hadn’t been working on this topic, been familiar with the book and its concept, I might have been fooled into thinking the exhibition made sense, and that I was too uneducated to get it. As it was, I just saw it as nonsense.