How Can Cans be a Book?

"Depth in Metres" artist book by Toni Hartill

Initial ideas for this wee tin can tinkering came about when I was working 

towards the "Scattered" group exhibition earlier in the year.

I found myself making mini-dioramas inside little folded boxes 

and in tuna and sardine tins. Yep, one minute I'm printmaking... next, I'm making mini imaginary worlds in old food tins... it happens.

Dioramas made for "Scattered" group exhibition by Toni Hartill

Tin can dioramas by Toni Hartill

Having accumulated a wee cluster of cans I then began 

playing with ideas of how these could become a "book".

As I was planning on working towards the PCANZ Thinking_Unfolding artists book exhibition later in the year I suppose this was the beginnings of my own thinking unfolding. One of the aims of the PCANZ exhibition was to challenge and explore what it is that makes an art object an artist's book.

I began playing with the notion that a book may:

tell a story, 

record an event,

be a diary,

has pages and chapters that reveal new information,

is open to interpretation depending on the audience...

Each of these little dioramas could be another chapter in my "story" 

or perhaps it could be a diary or a ship's log...?

"Depth in Metres: artist book by Toni Hartill

Next I'd need some way to contain my chapters or pages, as in a book cover...??

I toyed with various receptacle ideas but wanted to choose a structure that was relevant to the charts used so I settled on the simple structure of an old rolled chart/map into which the stack of cans would fit. I even decided to leave the old cotton ribbon, that I had used when gluing the tube, as it seemed fitting to leave it there.

"Depth in Metres" artist book by Toni Hartill

Scroll on to see the making of "Depth in Metres".

I was pleased with my end result of this "slight" diversion from what I was supposed to be working on at the time... and wanted to push the idea further to create a larger, more "sophisticated" version of this concept with a view to it being my entry for the Thinking _Unfolding exhibition.

My entry would also need to include printmaking as this version is made entirely of upcycled charts.

To see how this idea developed into my entry 

please return to see my upcoming blogs about my artist book "Vitamin Sea".

(Search in the "Exhibitions" list under "Thinking_Unfolding" 

or click on the "Artist Book" tab in the toolbar above.)

"Vitamin Sea" artist book by Toni Hartill

The Making of "Depth in Metres"

Stay tuned for new post coming soon!

"Vitamin Sea" artist book by Toni Hartill