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Interviews Archive

Tuesday

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July 2013

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Interview: Glenn Barkley

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Before heading out to share stories on his zines and ephemera at the Museum at Contemporary Art Zine Fair  – MCA curator, Glenn Barkley introduced us to his wonderful, extensive book collection and we discovered his relentless passion for collecting. Under the watchful eye of his cat, Brian – our visit revealed boxes of zines, artwork lining the hallways, linen cupboards safe guarding much loved photography books, secondhand finds, shelves covered with beautiful patchwork blankets and books waiting patiently for a permanent home.

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I quite often get asked to talk about my zines but I gave a lot of the collection away. I started to cull my zines and spoke to the State Library of NSW about what they had and I just sent them the whole collection. There are bits left – boxed upstairs. I like dispersing things just as much as accumulating things – some collectors are like that. I come from a family of collectors. My father’s father was a collector of plants and probably collected other stuff too. 

I have been collecting zines and books forever. You can build an international world class zine collection with no money. I didn’t count them but I had at least 600 zines. People tend to give me zines –  I have made a couple of my own in small runs but have never sold them – I give them away. 

There a couple of artists whose work I really like – Raquel Ormella –  she is a Sydney artist and does a zine called Flaps, Leigh Rigozzi – a comic book artist and Vanessa Berry is amazing. 

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I have become more interested in vernacular photography and people using photography in an interesting way. I actually kept my photography zines. Quite often collecting coincides with my work – I have just worked with Laurence Aberhart, who is a fantastic New Zealand photographer and he sent me a whole lot of his books that were out of print. He works with a large format 8X10 camera that is about 120 years old and he only prints contact prints. It’s the only camera he has ever worked with.  So these images are about the size of the originals. Laurence rarely photographs people – 90% of his work is architecture.  It’s really beautiful work.

Also within Glenn’s collection is a beautiful 3 volume set by William Eggleston. Los Alamos Revisited is a 3 volume work that includes images from a road trip across America that Eggleston took with the legendary American curator Walter Hopps. What did Jack Keroauc say about Robert Frank’s book The Americans? ‘With one hand he sucked a sad poem right out of America’. This book is a bit like that – it’s easy to put Eggleston and Frank in the same sentence. I love American photography of the twentieth century – it feels perfect.

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This is my book – SOUTH of no NORTH from my recent exhibition. I am lucky that I have this job that I can make my own books. My books are my favourites and I love it when I find one of them in a secondhand store. I don’t buy them but I photograph them. It’s exciting to see them secondhand.

There is an amazing bookstore in New Zealand called Parsons and they used to do their catalogue every month that was photocopied and handwritten – it was almost like someones school project. I subscribed to their newsletter because I wanted to collect them because they were so great. I actually made into the catalogue. I thought – I’ve made it, I can stop now. Nicholas Pounder listed a book of mine into a catalogue, which was great too.

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Glenn opens up his linen cupboard to reveal books hidden amongst his towels and sheets. This is all the photography books. I want to look after them – I keep them here so they are not exposed to the light.

Martin Parr is a really great photographer and published this book in two volumes –  The Photobook: A History Vol 1 and Vol 2,which is now quite famous. This book has become influential in making every book within the book very expensive and sought after and has established a list and people are buying books according to the list. This is what happens with book buying – people are always after Booker prize and Miles Franklin first edition signed copies. This book has become the list for photography books.

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There is a funny story linked to The Photobook: A History. I was meeting Matthew Sleeth who is a great photographer in Melbourne. Tour of Duty was one of his books that I found in a sale for about $5 but it is a limited edition book featured in Volume two of  The Photobook: A History. When I gave my zines away to the State Library, they asked me to come in and talk to them about my zines. After I spoke to them I went down to the ground floor and their was a second handbook dealer in front of me and that book was literally sitting up. I was meeting with Mathew and took it in for him to sign. When Matthew went through my pile of books of signed he told me about producing a hardcopy version of the book but he was unable to sell it because everyone wanted the soft copy version featured in the book.  That book sells now online for between one – two thousand dollars. He signed it for me and inscribed  ‘Nice score’.  

I felt like it was karma because I had  given away all those zines. It was like a gift from the gods. It’s a great book.  

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This shelf is my archived books – no-one is going to archive you – apart from you. People don’t realise if can keep a collection as complete as you can there is some value to it. I may never sell it but I can give it to a museum. There is a big box that is full of every notebook that I have ever had. People don’t think to keep that. If I go somewhere  –  I’ll buy half a dozen of notebooks for my writing. 

All my zines are stored above in Kiki K boxes. I am trying to get through things but it keeps building up.

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I was collecting all of Noel Mckenna’s books. He is an artist I am interested in and I just started collecting everything. I have known Noel for a while now and comminised him to paint a picture for Lisa.  I just did a show with Noel and and he gave him his full collection of catalogues and it goes back to 1991. Everything has also now been signed.  

There are certain things I wouldn’t lend out and others I don’t mind. I actually don’t like borrowing books from people. But I have a very good friend George Hubbard, a New Zealand  curator. We swap books a lot – I see him twice a week – he is the only person I swap books with.

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Glenn shares his shelves with his wife  – Lisa Havilah (Carriageworks director).  Lisa and I went to art school together at the Uni of Wollongong – Lisa was in the year above me. We all thought she was the best painter in the school. We didn’t really know each other that well although we both grew up on the south coast . I gave her some books I thought she would like and somebody stole them from her studio space. To repay me Lisa gave me a copy of Robert Hughes’ Nothing if Not Critical – a book we still have.

We also have the early Charles Bukowski books from his first publisher Black Sparrow – they were reprinted with the same cover but with the new publishers name. These books, Lisa and I collected when we were first together.

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For my birthday last year the artist Helen Eager – who I have worked with at the Museum  and a friend of mine gave me this beautiful gift. This type of book is called a leporello – the art work folds up into this tiny form. It’s like an exhibition in a book.

I am about to do a show in Melbourne and this is my second copy of this book which I had found secondhand – A Package Deal.  I am showing this piece in Melbourne but my copy has the whole thing.  This is a great piece of Australian conceptualism – it is an assembly book. A hundred people would give you a hundred pages of the same thing and then you make a hundred copies of the book. People still make this type of book.  

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I read everything – I am a huge Stephen King fan and I am not ashamed to say it. I think I have read every Stephen King book about six times. I bought the iPad  and I tend not to buy novels anymore. People think that kindles and iPads are the end of reading but I think it is the beginning of reading. People will read more, not less. I am a real bibliophile and most people that I know who are bibliophile’s do both. 

I get up at 6 am at every day and I read for an hour. This is a record of everything I have read in the past year – I am now on my second book and I write something about each book. It’s almost like a reminder. Sometimes I will be reading a book and I know that I have read it before. When you have so many books its difficult to know what to read so you end up buying more books.

Glenn is also preparing for a trip to America for work. When I am at the airport tomorrow it’s going to be hard for me not to buy a book –  so I bought a Michael Crichton for the plane ride so I can just leave it on the plane  – a good read and throw.

On Glenn’s return from his trip we asked him what books followed him home.
I bought a lot and was given a lot to – I sent back five boxes and had to buy a new wheely carry-on bag to fill with books.

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About Glenn

Glenn Barkley is Curator at Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Sydney and was previously curator of the University of Wollongong Art collection from 1996 – 2007. He was founding co-Director with Lisa Havilah and Nathan Clark of Project Contemporary Artspace, Wollongong.

Major curatorial projects have included Almanac: The Gift of Ann Lewis AO, MCA (2009-10), Making it New: Focus on contemporary Australian art, MCA (2009) avoiding myth & message: Australian artist and the literary world, MCA (2009), Home Sweet Home- Works from the Peter Fay Collection NGA (co-curated with Dr Deborah Hart) (2003/2004 and touring), Multiplicity: Prints and Multiples from the Collection of the MCA and the University of Wollongong, MCA (2006 and touring), Without Borders: Outsider Art in an Antipodean Context (co-curated with Peter Fay), Monash University Museum of Art and Campbelltown Art Centre, Sydney (2008).

In 2011 he curated a survey of Berlin based New Zealand artist Michael Stevenson and a major exchange exhibition tell me tell me: Australian and Korean Contemporary Art 1976-2011, between the MCA and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea). In 2001 he curated the  initial hang of the MCA Collection, Volume One: MCA Collection for the MCA’s new collection galleries and  co-curated with Lesley Harding, Heide Museum of Modern Art, As If a retrospective of Australian artist Ken Whisson.

He is the curator of South of no North: Laurence Aberhart, William Eggleston and Noel McKenna and in August 2013 string theory: Focus on Australian contemporary art a survey of Australian indigenous textile and fibre art. In July he is also guest curator of the annual Octopus at Gertrude Contemporary Melbourne. This exhibition, titled on this day alone, looks at photography and transformation.

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Leigh Russell and Kathy Luu chatted to Glenn on Sunday 26 May 2013. Images by Kathy Luu.

© Hello Bookcase 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Thursday

13

June 2013

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Interview: William Yang

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In the 1970s and ’80s William Yang captured Sydney’s emerging artistic, literary, theatrical and queer circles through his lens. Today William welcomed us into his home with a cup of green gun powder tea, shared with us stories from his past and present, read us poetry from Constantine P. Cavafy and took us on a  journey while he searched high and low for some of his most treasured books. 

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At the moment I am reading a book of short stories by Colim Tobin – The Empty Family. I like him very much and I am also reading a book from spiritual writer Eckhart Tolle. There are several writers I can always read. I pick them up and they speak to me as if they are there –  Edmund White, Helen Garner, and Christopher Isherwood. I do feel I have gotten lazier in what I am prepared to take on reading. Nothing too difficult, nothing too long.– there is so much other competition for your attention.

 I actually prefer non-fiction to fiction. I think that it’s got something to do with documentary photography. I found the real more powerful than the created and that is also a part of my philosophy as well – there is a fascination in the ordinary. I tend towards biographies and documentaries – those real issues. I find too much artifice in fiction. 

DSC_9973My favourite photographic book is by Diane Arbus called Monograph. She cut through and reached an inner psychology of the person that she was photographing. People always think I like Robert Mapplethorpe because of the gay association but I think he focuses too much on the exterior whereas Diana Arbus penetrates.

She converted me to photography after I saw some of her photographs in Artforum, which is an American art magazine. I thought they were incredible, although I wouldn’t call myself as good as a photographer as Diane Arbus. Brassai  is also a photographer I like – I have his book The Secret Paris of the 30’s. He would hang out in the streets and bars of Paris and photograph the nightlife, gays and lesbians and brothels.

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The book Up Close is a catalogue from an exhibition at Heidi Museum of Contemporary Art in Melbourne. It featured Carol Jerrems work with support acts by Nan Goldin, Larry Clark and me. Sydney Diary was my most successful book probably because it was a mixture of Sydney images of the beach, gay, diary, people and  celebrities but it is now out of print and is rare. My latest is a hand written zine Australian Asian Queer that was printed in Canada.  

Williams work is also featured in 25 Belvior Street– a book of essays and photographs celebrating 25 years of theatre at Belvoir. This is one of my photos of Neil Armfield and Geoffrey Rush after one of their performances of Exit the King but rare in that the actor that played the soldier was sick that day – so Neil played the part.  DSC_0032 I enjoy reading poetry  –  I like Robert Anderson and Robert Gray who are my friends. Absolutely my favourite poet is Constantine P. Cavafy – I have used some of his poems onto my photos. He was from Alexandria and he wrote in the early 20th Century.

Cavafy wrote poems where he imagined historical characters and events and he also wrote about his everyday life. He influenced me because there was a certain everyday tone in his work that I try to emulate in my pieces. It’s very matter of fact and yet it is highly contrived. I discovered him through the David Hockney etchings based on Cavafys poems.

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I do have a few books of my performance pieces but they are all out of print.Three years ago I received a fellowship from the Australia Council to make DVDs of my performance pieces. I think the DVD format gets closer to the performance than a book. You get an idea of my presence in the work which you don’t get in a book. I don’t take that many photographs now – I am trying to get my existing collection in order so it is consumable.

I directed with Annette Shun Wah, Stories Now and Then, a performance piece that has just finished at Carriageworks. I wasn’t performing in it, but we had six Asian Australians telling their stories using my method of talking with image projection. It was very successful. ‘William Yang: My Generation’ recently screened at the Sydney Film Festival to sold out audiences and will be rescreened on ABC1’s Sunday Arts Up Late.

I asked William about his early playwriting days. I have destroyed my early plays and I date my work from my performance pieces because that is when I found my voice. The performances are more me and my early work is more derivative. I never mention them on my CV!

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There is beautiful book by Edmund White called My Lives. I think it is a masterpiece of biography writing because I can identify with it being gay and having many different lives. I think he divided it up quite nicely with this book. The way he writes about his mother in the book is also incredible and I like to reread the story.  The Burning Library is book of essays from Edmund White. He has an essay on gay culture called Sexual Culturewritten in 1983 when I was very much into gay politics. I actually photocopied the story and sent it to my friends.

Within William’s shelves is the anthology of  Gay Australian Writing. This book features Robert Dessaix – I like his work a lot, Christos Tsiolkas and  also Peter Rose, he is a poet and also wrote The Rose Boys –  a memoir about his brother who had an accident and was confined to a wheel chair. David Marr is in there too- I admire David as an activist and in my day David was a spokesman for the left wing. His biography on Patrick White is fantastic.   

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I had heard about Patrick White – his reputation had preceded him. He knew about my work as he had purchased one of my images from my exhibition. Patrick had written plays in the 50’s and 60’s, which were produced but he wasn’t very happy with the productions. In the 80’s –  Jim Sharman started to resurrect some of his plays. The first one was The Season of Sarsaparilla which was a very successful production, which starred Kate Fitzpatrick, Robyn Nevin and Max Cullen. With this success, Patrick started to write new plays – he had written Big Toys for Kate, Max and Arthur Digman which was set in Sydney.

I first met Patrick in Kate Fitzpatrick’s dressing room on the opening performance of Big Toys. There is a story to this  — Brian Thomson, the set designer and been researching Patrick’s life and had come across a note that Patrick had written to Father Christmas when he was six years old.

Dear Father Christmas – we will please send me a butterfly net, a violin, Robison Crusoe, History of Australia, bag of marbles and a little mouse that runs across the room…..

Brian had bought all these presents and put them in a pillowslip and gave them to Patrick as an opening night present. He was delighted  – so the first photo I have ever taken of him was of him holding a photograph of  a little mouse – Brain had pushed me forward and said “Take this photo”  – I don’t think I even had said hello to him.

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There is another book I consider a treasure – it is unpublished. David Marr gave a talk about Patrick White called – A Life in his Face. I supplied David with many photographs for him to use and he gave me this transcript of the talk. It features all the people who have painted Patrick White and gives a history.  I was thrilled to receive it from David.

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I call myself Taoist. Lao Tze’s book Tao Te Ching is translated “the way, virtue, book” and in the West it is the text for the philosophy Taoism. It’s not a religion, more an instruction for living, being in cooperation with the course or trend of the natural world.

I have read many translations and books on Taoism. My favourite translation is by Ursula le Guin, the poet and science fiction writer. It’s bold and poetic. I have bought many copies of 365 Tao Daily Meditations by the San Francisan born Chinese, Deng Ming-Dao, to give away as many people have asked me about Taoism and it’s a good introduction to self-cultivation by a daily practice.

I like books on death and spirituality, two different subjects. Seize the Day – how the dying teach us to live, by Marie de Hennezel, I found uplifting. They are stories from a hospital for the dying in France. There’s one resonant line where she says that everyone needs to tell their story before they die as a kind of completion of their life.

My favourite sage at the moment is Eckhardt Tolle. He wrote The Power of Now and A New Earth, where he says that being spiritually conscious is a way of saving the world. One’s inner purpose is to awaken. For him his awakening happened spontaneously. Whereas many people I have read on this subject have spent years in monasteries, training by the book, Tolle gives hope that it can happen now, wherever you are. His writing is clear, he quotes Jesus Christ, Buddha and Lao Tze to reinforce his ideas. So he manages to have an overview which seems to embrace a world history of spirituality. I don’t hold it against him that he is popular, he’s been on Oprah.

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Another of my treasured books is My Life and Work by Taam Sze Pui. I only had photocopied sheets of the book but I had them bound into a book. It is an account of a life  of relative of mine through marriage who was a shop owner in Northern Queensland. The book was privately published and it was reprinted by one of his descendants – only about 60 copies but an extract is also in the Macquarie PEN  Anthology of Australian Literature.

It’s completely different from the Western view of the Chinese at the time. I treasure it because it is a rare account by a Chinese, perhaps the only one – it’s a true artefact.

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About William Yang

William Yang was born in North Queensland, Australia. He moved to Sydney in 1969 and worked as a freelance photographer documenting Sydney’s social life which included the glamorous, celebrity set and the hedonistic, sub-cultural, gay community.

In 1989 he integrated his skills as a writer and a visual artist. He began to perform monologues with slide projection in the theatre. These slide shows have become the main expression of his work.  They tell personal stories and explore issues of identity. He has done eleven full-length works and most of them have toured the world. “Sadness”, his most successful piece, was made into an award winning film by Tony Ayres in 1999.

William’s current work is photo based, doing performances in theatres and exhibitions in galleries.  He is converting some of his live performance pieces into video at the University of NSW. He also conducts workshops in story telling,  helping other people tell their story.

William Yang: My Generation will be broadcasted at 10:25pm on Sunday 16 June on ABC1’s Sunday Arts Up Late.

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Leigh Russell and Kathy Luu chatted with William on Monday 3 June 2013. Images by Kathy Luu.

© Hello Bookcase 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Monday

10

June 2013

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Interview: Hilary Bell, Phillip Johnston, Moss and Ivy

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We caught up with the Bell/Johnston family to chat about books on their return from the Woollahra Library Book Sale and on their way out to have lunch with author, Claire Messud at the Sydney Writers’ Festival. Hilary and Phillip both have strong literary upbringings and this has come full circle with their own children – Moss (12) and Ivy (10) who also write their own poetry and plays. Their Bondi home is a bibliophile’s dream with overflowing bookcases (many that have been rescued from the street to join their family) from the living spaces, the hallway and to the bedrooms.  

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Phillip and Hilary walk us through their bookcases while Moss and Ivy read their comics in the sundrenched kitchen.

Phillip: Over here is our comics section and then we have larger comic books down the bottom. I am working on a piece with Art Spiegelman at the moment and I am a comic book freak. In my childhood I was really into DC comics – Superman and Batman, the Justice League of America, Adventure Comics. I also discovered Mad Magazine when I was very young through my aunts and uncles, and loved that. Some of the collections on our shelves are some of these, which Moss loves. But those aren’t the original comics, those are reprints. I don’t like the modern super hero comics, too angst-y and too expressionistic – I don’t like the art work or the stories. But of course I like other kinds of modern comix – a huge topic. Moss and Ivy like all different kinds – some the same as me, some totally different.

Hilary: I am not a comic book fan but I do appreciate them. I had never picked one up until I met Phillip and then we had kids and they would ask for Plastic Man as their bedtime story. I have been sucked into it. 

Hilary: I have a collection of research books up there – The Piltdown Man, The Worm in the BudThey all relate to different plays that I have worked on. I got Phillip to bring back this amazing book from New York for me – The Circus 1870s – 1950s. The cover was extraordinary and then when I looked inside I got even more excited. There are a few Noel Coward and Cole Porter – musical theatre books. 

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Hilary: A lot of our friends are writers too so our bookcase is filled with their books. My brother-in-law, James O’Loghlin has a few books out, Larry Buttrose is up there also, Claire Messud, Paul Auster and his wife Siri Hustvedt. Also artists who are friends that have made books – those coloured spine books up there are from our friend Nelly Reifler who made these zines with original artwork by Josh Dorman – a series called Aceldama. We also have artwork by Josh in our hallway.

Phillip: This whole shelf is for my PhD in music composition – my area of study is film music. So all these books relate to film music and silent films. I write original scores for silent films and my PhD project is called “The Polysynchronous Film Score: Contemporary Scores for Silent Film” and is being presented at the Newcastle Conservatorium. Prince Achmed is the ‘creative’ part of my project – I also have to do a written dissertation. The Adventures of Prince Achmed just premiered in Randwick and it will be performed again at Paramatta Riverside in September.

As an artist every book is a reference book because everything has ramifications that relate to everything you are doing even though I am a musician and composer a lot of my work is collaborative with writers, filmmakers and theatre writers. All things have waves that go out in different directions and come back again. To me having a library is such a valuable resource.

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HilaryThere is actually a logic to all our shelves. This bookcase is for plays and my theatre books and are organised in order of countries, musical theatre and opera. These books are all on writing; these are screenplays, and I also have a project-based bookcase. I am writing a musical about Cole’s Funny Picture Book which requires the delight of trawling through Cole’s Funny Picture Books 1-4 (though I’m missing #3) and the biography by Cole Turnley, Cole of the Book Arcade. We have a few very precious editions. The musical is called Do Good And You Will Be Happy. It’s a show for children and adults, that takes us into the world of the Funny Picture Book itself. The anthropomorphised animals (bespectacled pig, waistcoated stork, etc) are characters, as are Cole and his wife Eliza. The challenge has been taking a book that is a collection of poems, pictures, puzzles, political tracts, games and lists, and finding a dramatic form. We tried it early on as a kind of vaudeville variety show, but it needed a compelling story, progressing the action. We’ve got that now, and we’re doing a workshop with Merrigong Theatre in September.  

I’m writing a comedy called Piss Elegant for my dad, John Bell and I’ve been reading particular comedies – Gogol and commedia dell’arte in particular, to capture the tone. But the subject had me reading Ben Jonson’s Volpone, Moliere’s Tartuffe and Zuckmayer’s The Captain of Kopenick.

This book I really love – Notebooks by Australian writer, Murray Bail. It’s not a novel but little jottings out of his notebooks. As a writer I find it very inspiring – survival tips, things he notices sitting on the train. It’s a book you can dip into at any time without having to commit. Another book I have read a few times is The Information by Martin Amis, about a writer’s envy and self loathing ­– so that’s a healthy read!

Hilary’s stack of personal reading includes: Claire Messud’s The Woman Upstairs – I had to put it down for work-related reading, and can hardly wait to get back to it. Before that, I read Carson McCullers’ The Member of the Wedding, Anna Karenina, Mary Gaitskill’s short stories, Bad Behaviour, and Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From The Goon Squad. I can read again and again Pinter’s play Betrayal. And another that I read for pleasure is Caryl Churchill’s The Skriker. I also love La Bete, by David Hirson. 

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PhillipI have been spending maybe 25% of my time reading books I have read before. One – because I have forgotten them entirely or two – they are just the best book. Philip K. Dick is one of my favourite authors. I have been reading William Kotzwinkle, Martin Amis and Kurt Vonnegut and then I have been rereading stuff I had read when I was very young..like Catcher in the Rye.  I do read the same books again and again. I am also rereading books by Dutch detective writer Janwillem van de Wetering. He is a bit of weird writer – he was a member of the Dutch police but has also written books on Zen Buddhism. I went through a big Dr Fu Manchu kick for a while – these ones I have here are now all out of print.

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Phillip: My father was a novelist (William Johnston)– he was a hack writer – he published about 150 books and would write on demand. He wrote books from TV shows like Get Smart!, The Brady Bunch and The Flying Nun. The Marriage Cage and Barney are his only original novels. We also have a copy of an unpublished manuscript. After 20 years as a professional he quit writing and went to bartenders school – he couldn’t get a job as he was older so he bought his own bar and ran it successfully until he retired in Long Island. The books are now hard to find but we collect them whenever we see them.

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HilaryMy father started reading Dickens to my sister and me when we were very young – I would have been 7 or 8. I thrilled to the horror of the world described in these stories, and revelled in the grotesquery of the characters. I’m sure my passion for Victoriana was born here. He also read us Chesterton’s Father Brown, and I loved the wry humour that wove throughout the cracking stories, the crisply drawn characters, the surprises at every turn. The Hobbit, which he read to me when I was very small (perhaps four), made a very deep impression. I think when you are introduced to books at a young age, you feel a kind of ownership over them, and they entwine with your imagination and form the kinds of worlds you start to create in your head.

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Phillip: My parents had a big bookshelf like this and I discovered a lot books – that is one of the reasons why I wanted to make sure when we moved back here from New York that we had all our books. A bookcase is a great resource for kids as they reach different ages they can see things that were always there  all along but weren’t ready for and can discover incrementally as I did at my parents house. There were certain books that I was fascinated with but too young to understand.  There is a book I always talk about as an influence when I was a young adult —  Great American Plays and it had  The Glass Menagerie, The Man Who Came to Dinner and others. That book got me into the theatre. Another one that caught my eye was Catch 22 – I had looked at it for years but eventually picked it up when I was older.

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I was curious about what books they had introduced to each other. Phillip: Hilary introduced me to the work of Helen Garner – who I really like a lot. We discovered Dorothy Porter together. Hilary: I liked the one you were begging me for twelve years to read – The Third Policeman by Irish writer Flann O’Brien. I loved it. 

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Moss (12) and Ivy (10) have a bookcase of their own filled with their most treasured and well-loved books.

Moss: I am reading The Scripts of Black Adder and I have just started Coraline (Neil Gaiman). 
Ivy: I am reading that too. He always reads my books. A prominent series in Ivy’s collection is Ivy and Bean by Ann Burrows The Ivy and Bean books are really good. We know the illustrator (Sophie Blackall) and she is really nice. Ivy points to a brightly covered book… I also like The Candymakers (Wendy Mass) but I have read it only once.

Hilary: They have been devoted to Lemony Snicket for 11 years now. They have been listening to the audio version of the book and also reading it.  They of course love Roald Dahl, like every child and Anthony Browne.  Moss is into mythology, science and history – they were into Horrible Histories for a while – they get obsessed with a few things and then move on. The kids’ shelves get rejuvenated as they grow out of their infant books. We have hung onto two books that were given to us when the kids were born in New York. We pass on the books we don’t keep to family and we never feel we are completely giving them away.

We have started to share older classics with them – The Time Machine, Kidnapped, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. When our friends write books for children we read them and the kids give their feedback. At the moment we are reading a young adult novel by Verity Laughton. She is a playwright but is branching out into another direction. 

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Phillip was flying off to New York that week to deliver a paper at the Music and the Moving Image conference at NYU. I haven’t started thinking about what book I will take with me. The Ellington bio is really heavy (that I bought at the Woollahra Library Book Sale) and I am going for week this time. I am not too sure what book  I will take – the attributes of a plane book are very specific and can not be too heavy.

Phillip contacted me when he arrived in New York: I ended up buying Illegal Harmonies by Andrew Ford at the Writers’ Festival. I thought his book on film music was really erudite and witty. That’s going to be my plane reading. The Ellington biography is really good, I’ve already started reading it, but I think it’s just too heavy (weight, not content) for the trip. I’m trying to travel light.

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About Hilary Bell

Hilary Bell is an award-winning playwright who has written for stage, radio, screen and music theatre. She is a graduate of the Juilliard Playwrights’ Studio, NIDA, and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and has had her plays performed in Australia, Europe and the United States. Hilary has recently been awarded the Patrick White Playwriting Fellowship.

About Phillip Johnston

Phillip Johnston is a musician and a composer for stage, radio and screen. Phillip tours within Australia and New York with his bands – The Microscopic Septet, Joel Forrester & Phillip Johnston Duo, Fast ‘N’ Bullbous, The Spokes, Phillip Johnston & the Coolerators and SNAP. Phillip is currently studying for his PhD in Music Composition.

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Leigh Russell and Kathy Luu met with the Bell/Johnston family on Saturday 25 May 2013. Images by Kathy Luu.

© Hello Bookcase 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material in this specific post without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Monday

27

May 2013

1

COMMENTS

Interview: Doug Purdie

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Doug Purdie’s East Sydney terrace holds many secrets. Downstairs, the walls are lined with crime novels spanning over four bookshelves in the darkness amongst the large tubs of honey. The honey has been produced by the many beehives that can be found on Sydney’s best restaurants rooftops. Upstairs – the light tumbles in through the arched windows onto a side reading room. The rooftop balcony reveals a family of bees working hard to produce honey amongst the hustle and bustle of the city. Doug is an urban apiarist (beekeeper) who has learnt everything he knows about his intriguing  profession through his love of books. 

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My knowledge has always come from reading books instead of  a classroom environment –  I left school very young.  I started  reading and researching about bees three – four years ago. Research led me to the issues that are affecting  bees around the world and it inspired me to let people know that bees are under threat. We are one of the only countries in the entire world without the issues others are dealing with but we need to be prepared. The Varroa mite has not managed to get to us because of our isolation but  eventually it will find its way here and then there will be major problems. Bees are incredibly important to our environment  and in life and without them we are be in trouble. Within the last year people are starting to get it.

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I have every bee book known to man – I have this classic collection upstairs and more downstairs. At the moment there are no other bee books I want to collect – I have really got the all ones I want for now. The Clemson was the hardest to get and my copy is irreplaceable. 

ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture by A.I.Root – The bible of beekeeping into its 41st edition now – although mine is the 31st and was published  in 1959.

Honey and Pollen Flora by Alan Clemson –This book is indispensible in checking the trees around prospective hive sites to see exactly what’s going to be in the honey.

Bee Keeping Naturally  by Michael Bush – A no nonsense book with many ideas that challenge the norm for beekeeping. A good book to refer to when looking for a balanced view when looking for a solution.

The Honey and Pollen Flora of NSW by  W.A. Good Acre (published 1938) – A very useful book showing tree species across NSW from beekeepers eyes of the day and include lost of anecdotal notes.

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I will read anything but I enjoy reading crime novels, history  and history based novels.  I enjoy cooking so  I collect a lot of cookbooks. Within Dougs cookbook collection is a dusty copy of  Patrica Cornwell’s  Food to die for: Secrets from Kay Scarpetta’s Kitchen.

We also discover  a copy of an airconditioning manual – Instead of taking it in to get fixed I actually just bought the manual and fixed it myself.  Revealing a stint in film –  American Cinematographer manual by Charles G Clarke makes an appearance.

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Even though I love  and read a lot of books I have crossed over to a kindle for my  crime novels.  I think it is more ecological sound to read novels that are basically throw aways on a e-reader. I have passed on hundreds of books and I will be giving away my collection downstairs to make room. 

Books I know I will re-read – I buy to keep. 

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Sitting within the vast crime and history  collection is a row of beautiful hard-covered books that have followed Doug from his childhood into adulthood. As a child I would read the World Encyclopedia in bed  from about the age of six. My mum would  always find me propped up in bed with my books.

The Three Commanders by W.H.G Kingston

The Air Patrol by Herbit Staring

Peter the Whaler by W.H.G. Kingston

Holiday at Sandy Bay by E.S. Beauties

Air Aces of Worth by Bracebridge Hemyng

William the Outlaw by Richmal Crompton

The Crimson Caterpillar by Sercombe Griffen  was one of my favourites as a child. I remember the story fondly along with a number of Famous Five books. I also read all the Biggles books. War seemed so exciting as a young boy.

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Also sitting amongst the shelves of books we find  jars of honey, bee wax candles, spare hives and  samples of honey. Books and bees are large part of Doug’s life. We supplied 14 kilos of honey for TedX Sydney a few weeks ago. We set up a beehive within Royal Botanic Garden under a giant fig tree to produce honey for the event. We are hoping this will be an ongoing hive.

A lot of people have a fear of bees but they are actually quite harmless if you respect them.  Each hive has its own personality and there is an old saying about beekeepers and it relates to how they are attached to their hives.  When the beekeeper dies – the partner of the beekeeper has to go out and  tell the bees.

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About Doug Purdie

Doug Purdie established The Urban Beehive with Victoria Brown where they focus on hive hosting. Hives are supplied to provide pollination services and local urban honey from your rooftop or backyard.  Doug is the president of the NSW Amateur Beekeepers Association.

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 Leigh Russell and Kathy Luu chatted with Doug on Friday 17 May 2013. Images by Kathy Luu.

© Hello Bookcase 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Saturday

11

May 2013

6

COMMENTS

Interview: Jemma Birrell

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DSC_3753For the last seven years, Jemma Birrell has been calling the  Parisian bookstore – Shakespeare and Company  home, where she was been  involved in inviting  and entertaining some of the worlds most prestigious and upcoming authors –  including Alain de Botton, Robert McLiam Wilson, Will Self and Jeanette Winterson.

Jemma’s books have  just arrived home in Bondi  from Paris. It’s been a  long journey – but well worth the wait crossing oceans to be with her where she is the Artistic Director for  the Sydney Writers’ Festival.

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There is an element of all my books in me. Having my books back from Paris is a  comfort and I know I am home when I have them with me. The first thing I do when I go to someone’s house is check out their collection, see what books they are interested in, get more an idea of the books that have shaped them.  Personally, I  love collecting books of various subjects and styles and  I got rather greedy working Shakespeare and Company – when all the rare editions and beautiful pulp classics would come in from various libraries around Paris. 

Away from the mountains of books, Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton has comfortably taken the prime position on Jemma’s window sill overlooking the ocean.

I  first met Leanne after inviting her to Shakespeare and Company (Leanne is based in New York) where she spoke about her work and painted book blocks with stunning vintage-style covers.  She is an extraordinary artist and  writer.  One of her books Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including books, street fashion, and Jewelry  tells of the collapse of a relationship told through the objects and looks like an auction catalogue (Sheila Heti, an author coming to this years Sydney Writers’ Festival is the model and character in this book).  I also have and love her Native Trees of Canada book which is a collection of delectable paintings.  

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I particularly love old book design. The cover of  In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming  is just extraordinary. It’s a forgotten classic and the cover says so much to me, it’s just beautifulAlso – Be My Knife by David Grossman.  The cover is such a  juxtaposition and while she has such a soft  exquisite face there is a violence to the title.   Justine by Lawrence Durell  is also one of my favourites – such poetic writing,  it was given to me from Sylvia at  Shakespeare and Company as a farewell gift.  

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At the moment, I am reading about a million things – mostly as much as I can for the festival.  I have asked different writers to write new pieces for the festival and I’ve delved into Pauline Nguyen‘s piece on authenticity. I am also reading The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud – which I love – who is giving the closing address this year on Imaginary Homelands (the title coming from Salman Rushdie’s essay).  Have you read How Should  a Person Be? by Sheila Heti?  She is doing an intriguing event at the festival where she will involve the audience – asking them questions to work out what makes a person interesting.

I have been dying to read  The Desert by  Pierre Loti – a famous French travel writer which I will when I get a bit more time.

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Jemma opens another book that reveals an old French postcard, that was from the book’s original owner.

Every secondhand book has a past life and I love the traces you find when you open them – postcards, letters, photos.

I moved to Paris to write – I had been working in publishing and I thought it would be good to get into my own writing, but I only wrote bits and pieces and dabbled with restaurant reviews and other such things.  Instead, I got embroiled in the magic and madness of the bookshop, which was wonderful. I was around fascinating  people and found it creatively satisfying bringing audiences together with authors.  It was my creative outlet and my energy went into that. 

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At the moment because of all of the events I have been doing the past few years in Paris and now here- I read a lot of contemporary fiction which  I really enjoy.  I also love to re-read over the classics.  I actually gave away many of my books when I left Paris but have kept many I still want to read.

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Last year I rediscovered Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie – I read it to a close friend  who was having a down moment, to make her feel better. I am not sure if it helped but it made me realise as an adult how great Barrie’s writing is.  The book is outstanding and it was lovely to go back to one that I haven’t read since I was a child. The drawings in the book are also beautiful – in this edition it’s hard to tell if they have actually been hand coloured.

When I was a child my parents would read to me every night.  There was so many stories that I loved. I also used to love the ‘made-up’ stories my parents would tell me.  My mum would often tell me a story about ‘The Velvet Curtain’ – children would pull the curtain around themselves and they would enter a new world.  

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Jemma opens up a cupboard filled with broken books and discarded covers that needed a home.  I have a whole collection of book covers  – I wanted to turn them into cards.  I should not being showing you the chaos – old covers that I have collected, books that have fallen apart but I cannot throw away. I think they are beautiful and some of them are on my wall.

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I discover new books  from my friends and people I admire and respect. Their passion for what they are reading makes me eager to read them. Part of my previous job was recommending books, and authors in terms of events in Paris and I loved it  – that’s also what the festival is all about.  

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If I could only keep five  of my books with me I would want to keep a mixture of books that I love aesthetically and ones I want to re-read. I would have to keep one of my Paris Reviews and Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas. 

The Waste Land and Other Poems by T.S. Elliot  | A precious first edition gift.

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller |  It’s a rare edition (with uncut pages).

In the Castle of My Skin by  George LammingI think it has one of the most beautiful covers.

Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter  by Mario Vargos Llosa | One of my favourites.

I collect books both for their content and also their aesthetic.

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Were there any books that surprised you? Yes, many! Walks With Men by Ann Beattie  –  Ann has written since the 70s (often published in The New Yorker) and is an extraordinary writer. She was very big back in the day and then she lost currency. I only rediscovered her in the last few years and I was blown away by her writing. Similarly with James Salter, I loved his  selection of short stories Last Night.  When I read Iris Murdoch’s, The Sandcastle – I  found it had a timeless quality. John Updike’s – Couples – I found his writing on relationships interesting.   Erica Jong’s – Fear of Flying – the cover made it look like bad 70s porn, then I read it and loved it, she’s brilliant.

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About Jemma Birrell

Jemma Birrell is the Artistic Director of the Sydney Writers’ Festival which runs from 20 May until 26 May 2013.
She organised events for the legendary  Shakespeare and Company in Paris and has a background in publishing.

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Leigh Russell and Kathy Luu chatted with Jemma on Monday 6 May 2013. Images by Kathy Luu.

© Hello Bookcase 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Sunday

28

April 2013

3

COMMENTS

Interview: Emma Magenta

Written by , Posted in Interviews

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Emma Magenta – Sydney born internationally acclaimed artist, illustrator, author of adult picture books; The Peril of Mag­nif­i­cent Love, A Gor­geous Sense of Hope, The Ori­gin of Lament and The Grad­ual Demise of Phillipa Finch, professional dilettante, capoeira athlete, mother, lover, tweeter, philosopher, goddess and master of robust whimsy – greets us with a smile, a red flower in her hair and a golden sparkly sequined shirt (the modern day woman’s armour against tedium and mediocrity). There is a welcoming effusiveness about Emma, as she opens her bookcase to us, makes tea for us in a house lined with art and ideas and souvenirs and the sounds of children sword-fighting in the next room.       

As the morning stretches into afternoon, Emma takes us through the formative books, who have made her who she is – and looks forward into a future fuelled by insatiable curiosity, poetry and wonder about the world with its beautiful, bizarre people and their practices.

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Ever since I was a kid, books have been my salvation and  to me, they are portals into a different dimension.   Generally, I love a lot of illustrated books – obviously it’s what I do. To me they’re just like fragments of my dream world so I collect them, they’re like children to me – and they hold a memory of that experience of when I read that book.

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On the shelves in her study, there are pictures and photos, birds nests huddled together, illustrated books, notebooks, her own pastel-spined books stand to attention next to her desk as the dappled light streams in. I notice thick brown tomes, ancient antique books.

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I worked at Berkelouw Books for ten years and I was in charge of antiquarian books –  and often I had to process the secondhand books – and if the book was too damaged and not worth restoring they would just chuck them in the bin and to me that was like throwing a way a newborn child – so I used to go and rescue them  – they know this. So it’s  the actual object that I love – but I’m also obsessed with certain subjects as well. I love looking at technical books – I love all those old illustrations as well. I’m an information junky  – I will read on how the body works and I’ll prefer to look at a book rather than go on the Internet – I like having it there and pouring over the pictures.

And I love explorers and travels up there – I love illustrations and etchings – as I did it at art school.  Because of that bin at Berkelouw’s, I’ve developed an intuitive sense about what books are worth saving and I’ve now accrued an incredible collection.

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I’ve always loved books. I didn’t go “I want to be a writer,” I’ve always written since I was a kid, it wasn’t my intention. I just saw myself as an artist – and was drawing while I was there – it just happened, it was a very organic process. I was working with writers who saw me as a professional dilettante playing capoeira full time and liked to draw with my left hand – so when I got the book deal –which was the terrible part of working with people who were studying writing while I was just drinking cups of tea and doing hand stands on the second floor.

It probably looked like life was unfair – I did have an urge and was putting a book together – a picture book but that was just for my own happiness.

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I ask Emma if her house was burning – what would be the books she’d rescue from the flames first?

The Red Book  Carl Jung | Not just for fiscal purposes, I just love that book.

The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait  Carlos Fuentes  | And I know you can replace the book, but its’ that copy, that particular book, It’s my book.

Catcher in the Rye  J. D. Salinger | It’s not a first edition but it is a hard copy and a really beautiful copy and I love that book. In fact, I’d salvage my whole Salinger collection.

Probably my own books because I’m not buying my own books back from the publisher, which is what I’d have to do. 

Amulets which you can’t get any more about indigenous cultures merging spiritual concept with art, for example making a drawing to heal someone. 

And I’d probably save my Rumi collection.

Of course it’s the Map books – yes, I’m into cartography – there are probably worth more but it’s the sentimental connection to the books that I’d want to rescue from the flames first.

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You’ve seen a lot of the world: When traveling, do you take a book?

The first time I ever travelled I took a whole bunch of books and cassette tapes with me and then  by the time I got to London I just got rid of them- I should have made a thousand mix tapes but .…

Books I had – I always take poetry – my Sylvia Plath collection and Margaret Atwood ( I love her poetry more than her novels) – and I was going through my Herman Hesse phase so I had his collection – but I go through writers as I go through stages.

A friend bought me a Kobo and I have to charge it up and try to load some things up – I don’t use it. But because I don’t go out much – I stay at home and read. But when travelling?  I’ve always got to have something to read. I often take a lot of non-fiction books with me when I travel. But if for some reason I’m on holidays where I know I won’t be interrupted I will take a fiction book so I can get lost in it.

And I wondered what were the formative books, the books from her childhood or her past who have made her who she is today?

From when I was about three I was looking at Peanuts cartoons  and when I think about that now I find it interesting that I’ve become a cartoonist in some ways. I was also obsessed with Enid Blyton on a profound level: she is so weird – if you read it now you think “Oh my god, she’s got terrible language, it’s awful” but I grew up with The Faraway Tree and the concept that there could be magic elsewhere – that was vital in my childhood – I grew up with and absolutely obsessed with any stories about finding other worlds or mysterious things: Playing Beattie Bow by Ruth Park and Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson.

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At that moment Emma hunts through her crowded bookcase:

This book is an all time favourite – “The Wicked Wicked Ladies in the Haunted Housewritten by Mary Chase – I would go to the library get it out, read it, have to return it, wait a week and get it out again… It’s about this girl who didn’t fit in at home and ran away and went into a mansion where she could time travel back in time when it was a functioning mansion. It was possessed by seven sisters and they came to life from these paintings. There’s something about the whole aspect of time travel, that there is magic in the ordinary and this sense of what was 2D becoming 3D that was most inspiring.

That book changed my life.

I decided then I wanted to write and I would practice for years trying to write the best scary story – but they were always shit… but it did change my life and I became obsessed with books and what books can do for you. 

I identified with this girl, it was quite a weird horror story when you think about it. I think writing was far more adventurous back then and I think there is a place for darkness in children’s’ books – I just think things have become so politically correct that kids are fed these generic, saccharine stories now and so they don’t have the skills to handle the darkness – and those books have stayed with me because they touch on darkness and explain the unfathomable and they don’t explain it – they touch on it and to me the journey forward is the mystery – not running from the mystery – those books were my shapers.

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 Do you give books away?

Yes… it’s why I have no books and can you please publish this: “Tony Dupe please give me back my For Esmé—with Love and Squalorby J. D. Salinger!”  I had to go buy a replacement copy – a penguin – and it’s just not the same – I want MY copy back, THAT edition.

So do I give away my books? Yes I do. All the time. And some I want back. 

Are there books you wish you had?

Always. Generally, if there’s a novel I want – I buy them and I love artist’s books and if I could I’d just collect them. There is a website called “Book by its cover” it’s a blog where she collects hand-made artists books – and some of them are just exceptional. Just beautiful books. I love that.

I’ve been concerned with how people have been seeing books – I don’t want people to abandoned them because they think it’s not worthwhile. If anything – people shifting over to technology is fine but there is nothing more sensual than holding a book and it just increases its cultural value. I think holding an object adds value to it. And that is especially true of books.

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On a tour of her bookshelves, Emma unfurls her favourite word-less children’s book – Scenes from Central Park… she opens wide Tolkiens Lord of the Rings, she opens tomes of art and images of totems and artefacts – and its one swirl of colour and possibility: portals into other dimensions.

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About Emma Magenta

Emma Magenta began her career draw­ing and writ­ing her thoughts down on brown paper bags while work­ing at Berkelouw Books in Padding­ton. After pin­ning them to the front win­dow, they accrued a cult sta­tus and a pub­lish­ing deal was offered to her by Australian publishing phenomenon Bradley Trevor Grieve. Since then, she has writ­ten and illus­trated sev­eral adult pic­ture books; The Peril of Mag­nif­i­cent LoveA Gor­geous Sense of HopeThe Ori­gin of Lament and The Grad­ual Demise of Phillipa Finch. These books explore aspects of the feminine psyche, one’s emotional world and the secret life of rela­tion­ships.

Augusta Supple and Kathy Luu  had tea with Emma Magenta on 13 April 2013. Images by Kathy Luu.

 

© Hello Bookcase 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Friday

5

April 2013

4

COMMENTS

Interview: Stephen Collier

Written by , Posted in Interviews

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The first thing that greets you when you walk into the office of  architect Stephen Collier is his large red bookcase.  Stephen is passionate about books and this comes out within his collection  sourced from his travels, exhibitions/museums/galleries and local bookstores. His bookcase goes beyond books on art and architecture and all are well loved and used as they spill out of the case and onto the work spaces.

Stephen let us peer into his bookcase to share with  you.

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When I was working in Barcelona, the urbanist architect I was working for had a library – this revered  space  with an amazing collection of books – all in glass cabinets around the room.  I studied in an environment  where the people I looked up to – my  mentors saw the value of establishing a library.   They would always talk to/with the books – they would just grab books out when talking about a project or to  a client.

The architecture and art books that I use for work are critical to actually  see the printed work. 

Stephen brings down a large hard covered art book from the shelf. I picked this up in Italy and it is so heavy.  There is nothing like that and  no way you can reproduce that smell or the feel of a book in any other format.

There is a richness to it – I could never get rid of these and I am still growing it and I don’t plan to stop.

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Five books Stephen  would not part with include:

Felix Gonzalez – Torres edited by Julie Ault | Everything that I love about art and the creative process (in architecture too) is enshrined in this book.

 Carlo Scarpa |  Scarpa inspires me with his brilliance. He combined new with old in an unparalleled way. He understood material and space. I aspire to do both.

Zenithal Light  Elias Torres | A huge part of the architect’s task is to shape the way light enters a building. This book is a quirky and beautiful catalogue of light and its emotional resonance. 

Lighter Wolfgang Tillmans | It’s just plain beautiful. 

We let Stephen put in a 8 volume box set as his fifth book.

Le Corbusier: Oeuvre Complète (Complete Works) | Le Corbusier was the master architect, who links us all back to antiquity. Pretty much everything that architects do today can be traced back to him, and much of what he did goes back to the ancients. And as so much about architecture is learning how to copy the best in others, why not go back to the source? 

Is that five already? I need some more!

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The book which surprised me the most out  of my collection is “We are the animals”  by young new writer Justin Torres – is about someone growing up gay within a working class New York family.  The book is devoid of any style and there is no pretension, simply rendered and so touching. The voice is there but very light when reading the story.  Some books like that one are a revelation – the characters foibles, insecurities and intelligence come through so strongly.

When I am travelling around finding  books become a surprise. I was in Rome, it was late at night and walking back to the hotel.  I came across a bookshop – taking it all in – I found a beautiful book on Piranesi – to find something like this is so rare.  On the same trip we were  walking past a publisher and came across a book with  original drawings of the buildings of Roman Colosseum and original manuscripts.  Every time I go travelling, I buy books and sometimes when I come back  my suitcase is mostly full of books rather than clothes.

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I picked up “In Praise of Shadows”  years ago and carried it around with me.  Written in 1933 by Junichiro Tanizaki, a Japanese writer – who wasn’t an architect but writes about darkness and shadows in his home and how it is quite critical  to not be afraid of dark spaces. Most houses/architecture are densely flooded with light and you don’t get a sense that you can have that darkness.  Tranquillity is as much as about shadow as it is light.

The Patrick White biography, “A Life” by David Marr made me feel like Australia was a place I wanted to be in and as a cultural place could generate interest.  

I read “Forbidden Territory and realms of strife.  The Memoirs of Juan Goytisolo” (and another book of his called “Marks of Identity“) when I was doing my PhD. When I discovered Goytisolo, I was no longer living in Barcelona but many of the themes (political strife of the Spanish Civil War, communism, the search for a creative identity) and places (in Barcelona) that he talked about were familiar to me. It was a moment in the research when all sorts of new & interesting connections were starting to show. I was deeply moved by the way he was so brutally and painfully honest with himself, of the things that had motivated him in life and of the disappointments (many of which challenged previously held beliefs). It was also the work of an exile, someone writing in a tough but fresh way about the love-hate relationship they have with the country where he grew up: looking piercingly at the things that shame them as well as the things so that irrevocably make them who they are as ethical people. He helped me to find my own narrative for writing about Australia in the PhD.

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I am not into being precious about my books, but my recent foray into books of that nature is a display book part of the Thomas Demand exhibition  last year in Sydney – the whole book opens up as spiral which is basically all the photos that were part  of the exhibition which was in the MLC building – the old commercial club. Each of these  rooms had a photo in it and the book is a representation of the exhibition.

 As I have gotten older, worked on different projects and have been  attracted by different ideas, the books I look for have expanded and  tend to be more specialised. I have become more eclectic and universal in my tastes.

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About Stephen Collier

As part of his PhD Stephen published  Paradigms of Observation A Blue That is Almost Black (Un Azul Casi Negro) based  on desire, memory and beauty.

Stephen’s essay appears within the book Public Sydney – Drawing the City which was launched this month at the Museum of Sydney.

Stephen Collier is an award winning architect based in Sydney | Stephen Collier Architects | http://www.collierarchitects.com

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Leigh Russell and Kathy Luu spoke to Stephen Collier on Friday 22 March 2013. Images by Kathy Luu.

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