Grandma's Cane or You can't choose Your Famiy - Artist in Seine

[Rebecca Guyver]

In January, hot and bothered from a bad will, I sent Artist in Seine a no longer needed household object.  Divesting myself of something was a way to wipe the person and his parsimonious family from my consciousness as well as my house. I sent my object all wrapped in plastic, as is my style , and you can see more about it here on Artist in Seine's blog: http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blogs/rebecca-guyver-used-tr...

Artist in Seine has his own customary style of using ornate and apt bookcovers as a postcard.  This postcard weighs a lot.  It turns out canes are heavy, cane handles are heavy too! And how he managed to afix them to the book cover and for them to make it over the Channel in tact, I can't explain. 

The waves of the front cover are exquisite and the way the canes echo them makes this a special and aesthetic piece of conceptual art!  I like that. But what I really like about Dean's reply is the stories we have shared and the way we are communicating visually, and haptically about unreasonableness in a mail art sort of way!

Read Dean's poem!

 

 

The only other thing I will say about canes is that I had never heard of caning until I went to Kenya as a Peace Corps volunteer and was expected to use the cane to control my class.  Needless to say I didn't and I didn't report anyone to be caned for some of the spurious caneable offences. socks down, unpressed shirt, disagreeing with a superior. Since moving to the UK I have heard stories of people my age WHO WERE CANED, so even if you think Dean's story might be a little far-fetched.  It can be like that... and I agree with Dean; the canes are better off glued to a book cover, especially when they make it look so pretty!

The wooden object that I posted to Dean

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Made a big HIT with me :-)

(Happy to learn they are old umbrella handles and not "canes" )

[Dean aka Artist in Seine]

     What a lovely blog and it brought tears to my eyes.  I hate to ruin the whole theme, but these are actually umbrella handles I found in the bin in London one very rainy Monday.  And the poem is based on a Bill Withers song called Grandma's Hands. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxjNauWYFfc

     But the leather & Paper marbling is real and from a very old beautiful book about the French revolution. I'm bored just typing the title! 

     In the 17th century the technique for making the  marbling papers reached Europe, where they became a popular covering material not only for book covers and end-papers, but also for lining chests, drawers, and bookshelves.

    But this is not to say that I didn't get any spankings when I was young!  I created my own revolutions.  Remember, if there is a will there's a way.  And those handles are glued on there good.

Thank you so much for the blog.  But where do we go from here?  Can I send you my Dad's playing cards?