INDIA Book Arts & Culture Tour, 2019

Tour in a nutshell

This intimate look into India is for those who wish to see behind the scenes of various working artists and craftspeople. Augmenting visits to art and craft centers, museums, studio visits and workshops, participants will have a chance to observe traditional wood block carving and printing on cloth, experience in natural dyeing, including visiting a natural indigo production unit, a miniature painter's studio and engage in traditional as well as modern papermaking methods. Additionally, we will visit world renowned architectural treasures like the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort to immerse into the aesthetic landscape of India.

For more information, go to www.radhapandey.com/tours

Algal/Fungal

My latest artist book, Algal/Fungal is in the binding phase. I printed this book during a 2-week alumni residency at UI Center for the Book. Algal/Fungal is about the three main types of lichen: Foliose, Crustose and Fruticose.

Title page. The book has 4 multi-block wood engravings. This particular engraving was completed at Penland in 2016 during Gaylord Schanilec's class. 

Foliose lichen

Fruticose lichen

Memory of Long Ago

I've finally completed an artist proof of the book about white titled Memory of Long Ago.

The book is bound to look like an ice core using paper that is the same size, just placed offset by about 0.75". 

The first page and the second half of the book has been waxed, to render the pages almost transparent. 

It was quite the challenge to print white on white and to print so that the text on multiple pages aligns when the pages are collapsed and one on top of the other.

White

The latest project I have been working on is a book exploring our perception of the colour white. The book started as a thought experiment that asked, 'What if snow was black, or orange? Would our perception of cleanliness, sanitation, peace, space, virginity, purity be different? Would doctor's coats and gallery walls be orange? How would this affect our notion of race and hierarchy?

I wanted to tie this idea in to glaciation, climate change, snow and firn. I wanted the book to resemble an ice core, as in this prototype. The images would be scratched into the top most waxed sheet of highly beaten abaca.

The scratches mark all the pages underneath, leaving a trace, a shadow of what was on top. Just like melting snow going from opaque to clear, I wanted the viewer to activate these qualities as the book's pages are turned. Stay tuned...