UNDER THE COVERS: A Celebration of the Tunnel Book.
A group of artists has come together to celebrate process and visual storytelling through the form of the tunnel book. Samantha Agar, Rose Cowles, Rhiannon Davies-Willson, Jessa Dupuis, Jennifer Rae Forsyth, Alesha Fowlie, Jessica Jean Kuyper and Amber Lomax have all worked in mixed media with their personal work; this includes everything from book binding, sculpture, assemblage, painting, collage, drawing and more. However, the shift to a tunnel book format has opened new pages of possibilities for them which give the work a fresh and intriguing quality.
Art is essentially a visual language. In combining the structure of a book (perhaps more accurately, a deconstruction and/or reconstruction of a book) with the process of art making, introduces ideas around storytelling, mystery, things hidden and revealed, memory and physical space. The theme of the tunnel book carries with it an inherent nod to childhood, and even the stage – historically, many tunnel books have been built to resemble tiny theatres. Recalling the pop-up books, shadow puppets and marionettes of our childhoods, an element of magic beckons; daring the artists to bring forth a sense of alchemy and enchantment within it.
As the artists weaved personal themes through this new medium it was the different perspective of the tunnel book that necessitated discovery in their artistic processes. This has ultimately translated into an experience of discovery for both the artist and the viewer with each person sharing the thrill of exploration, while at the same time relating their own distinctive worldview to the work. These stories are unique for everyone.