Don Widmer ~ Illinois

 
   
Don Widmer: "I have chosen the artist book as my medium due to is ability to convey a text while simultaneously being sculptural. The sculptural element helps me to convey an emotion, a symbol, or a sound to encourage a transformative experience. ... I rely on traditional symbols such as masks, ritual objects, music and light to encourage the reader to partake in this cultural transformation. These symbols may appear through the use of handmade paper which has been laminated, watermarked or pulp-painted. Or the book itself may be sculpted, bound or cut to convey a sense of personal communication and connection. The transformation of paper and text into a sculptural object, often imbued with symbolic meaning, provides a way for me to achieve both a physical and psychological bond with various cultures and the outsiders who inhabit them."
   

Hamatsa
By Don Widmer
Chicago, Illinois: 2010. Edition of 15.

5.25 x 10.625" tunnel book. Handmade paper of flax/abaca, cotton/sisal, dyed mitsumata. Laser cut. Letterpress printed. Text on both sides of the tunnel structure.

Don Widmer, colophon: "The Hamatsa (cannibal) was a secret society among the Kwakiutl people of the Pacific Northwest coast. Part of its practice consisted of a dramatic performance with music, masks, and dancing. I tried to capture some of the essence of sound and movement in this book."

Don Widmer (in a personal email): "The text is original text by me, based on the declamatory nature and subject matter of existing song texts from the Pacific Northwest Coast Native cultures. During the actual ceremony, initiates into the Hamatsa secret society (usually teenage boys) are taken by the cannibal spirit to reside in the woods for a specific period of time.

The text also incorporates words to evoke sound and movement."
$50


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Page last update: 07.13.10
   
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