bonbah

So it’s been a few months since our very exciting coffee table purchase, but we went one step further this weekend with our first art purchase. Since the coffee table (which is a beautiful teak and tile number) we’ve decided that we’d much rather have a few really special things than masses of Ikea type things. So we’re now on our second. Luckily both go very nicely with the teak sideboard and dining set we’ve inherited/stolen from my parents.

We haven’t actually got our new masterpiece yet. We bought it at the Brighton Art Festival on Saturday. We both saw it separately and both really loved it so although it’s not really something we can afford we decided we should have it anyway plus it was an excellent way to spend our Christmas money from Bonnie and to give each other a belated anniversary present. It’s a print by Alexandra Dipple called Dots and Full Stops No. 1 and we will have print 3 of 50.

The print is much more mesmerising in person. I couldn’t stop looking at it. It’s like a town of tiny houses and every time you look you see some more. I have always loved pattern and things with tiny detail, but I’m also rather in awe of things where it’s obvious that the artist or craftsperson took absolutely ages and gave all their attention. Maybe it’s because in an era of mobile phones and internet it seems so impossible to get that immersed in anything and it’s wonderful to think some people can.

Alex Dipple, the artist, rang us on Sunday to organise pick up and to thank us (several times) for buying her work. That made me realise, if I had any doubt, that we’d made the right decision.

Here’s Alex’s description of Dots and Full Stops No 1:

My Dots and Full Stops series uses a number of process rules: I use only discarded newspapers. I cut all the punctuation out by hand. Each dot is cut out in a square and the dots are arranged Tetris-like in a grid with a fine line between each square of paper, each dot occupies its own space. I use what Philip Galanter, in his Vague Terrain article, identifies as a constraint rule and predetermine the area to be filled with dots. I am investigating how different start points affect the look of the finished piece.

A Limited Edition of prints is available of Dots and Full Stops, no.1 and no.2. Both images are in an edition of 50 on 300gsm Innova Art Paper, Giclee Prints with a Silk Screened UV Glaze.

I hadn’t realised when we saw the print that the original artwork was made from newsprint. On the print it looks as if it’s made up of watercolour squares. I’m not sure which would take longer – painting them all or cutting out and arranging hundreds of tiny little squares. Probably the latter.

Alex has other works which we unfortunately weren’t able to view, but you can see them on her website. There are a few others and an installation done using the same method, but this time with hyphens and dashes rather than dots and full stops. These ones also evoke buildings to me, but this time cityscapes on the water’s edge. Alex is also a professional framer, so all of her prints are beautifully framed. Ours is in a very similar frame to the ones shown below. Unfortunately we don’t have enough walls right now to have the whole collection.

Here are Alex’s words on these prints:

My Lines of Dashes and Hyphens series puts into practice a number of production rules: I used only discarded newspapers. I cut all the punctuation out by hand, without using rulers. I take the empty space above and below the hyphen/dash. The hyphens/dashes are arranged on a straight line with the bottom of the hyphen/dash aligned and I paste the punctuation on the line from left to right to evoke the process of reading. When creating this original series I pasted up the punctuation in a random way.

Can’t wait to pick up our print. Also gives us an excuse to go back down to Brighton over the weekend…

see more from Alex here