It is with great anticipation that we look forward to our next exhibition, 'Tall Tales' by our long time supporter Deborah Klein who hosts her first solo show dedicated to artist books and painted miniatures.
Artist's Statement
In 2008 I began to write my first fairy tales. They were gathered together in a small illustrated book, There was once...The collected fairy tales (2009). It was published by Moth Woman Press, which I founded in the same year and named for the characters who inspired one of my first tales, The Story of the Moth Masks. All of my subsequent books and zines have been published by MWP and all are documented on the book blog Moth Woman Press - Limited Edition Artist's Books and Zines: http//mothwomanpress.blogspot.com.au/
The bound concertina books that dominate the solo exhibition Tall Tales are one-of-a-kind and open vertically. The drawings and hand lettering inside are ink and acrylic paint on handmade Khadi paper. Although they evoke fairy tales and folk tales, aside from their covers and title pages, the books contain no texts. There was simply no room for the thousand words that each picture is worth.
The primary inspirations for the imagery were the exquisite stop-motion silhouettes created by animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger (1899-1981). Her fairy tale films, which I first saw as a child in the days of black and white television, were my introduction to silhouettes. At the time, I thought I had never seen anything quite so magical. I still do.
The exhibition is a significant milestone, as it is my first to focus primarily on artist's books. They are complemented by a selection of miniature paintings. Although several of these served as studies for the books, each one is a finished work in its own right.
Sadly Deb's exhibition will also be our last and will mark the end of an exciting 5 year journey for Hand Held.
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