Read With Me – an exhibition of an experiment

Bodman, Sarah

Abstract

2nd December 2019 – 15th January 2020
Exhibition in the study area, Bower Ashton Library, UWE, Bristol, UK
Sarah Bodman: This exhibition continues the Read To Me project – an experiment made in collaboration with a psychometric reader, as an attempt to transmit the emotional content of stories through a series of physical objects. Ten objects were selected to read chapters of novels, or short texts to. They were then posted to the reader who relayed their messages back to me. This formed the basis of the artist’s book Read To Me (2018).

A pdf of all the drawings can be downloaded at:
http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/readwithme/

The project began by accident in winter 2002 at Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY, USA, when I undertook an Artist’s Publishing Residency to produce a limited edition artist’s book The Marsh Test. It was here that someone mentioned the Fox Sisters, Margaret and Kate who launched their careers (aged 16 and 13) as spirit mediums (170 years ago) with a public performance on 14th November 1849, at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester, NY. Their performances played a part in the huge rise of interest in spirit rappings and in turn the founding of the Spiritualist Movement in 1850s America.

On Thursday 14th November 2019, an experiment took place at Arnolfini’s bookshop at 6.30pm. In tribute to the Fox Sisters and the artist Susan Hiller’s Sisters of Menon publication, attendees attempted to capture a reading that was transmitted. Others participated remotely and posted or emailed their drawings to me. Participants created 56 drawings, sent in from the UK, Australia, USA, The Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.

• Exhibition Performance Type: Exhibition
• Start Date: Dec 2, 2019
• End Date: Jan 15, 2020
• Deposit Date: Feb 28, 2020
• Keywords: artists' books, automatic drawing,
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/5572996