RESEARCH
mandy bonnell
My work over the last few years has focused on the exploration of the book as an art form. These usually comprise limited edition artists prints which serve as a recording of a collection of moments and personal identity, set within a specific location. The work becomes a continuing visual statement that experiments with the traditional presentation and concept of a book through its form and function and its location in a gallery space. The experience of exploring a book is usually a private one that allows its contents to be revealed gradually as the pages are turned. The book format therefore, is well placed to recount a series of visual journeys. The exhibition of a book in a public space, allows the medium to viewed and ‘read’ in a different way. Several of my recent books and prints have been purchased by Victoria and Albert Museum and the Yale Center of British Art.
In 1990 I was asked by Kenyan environmentalist and artist Jony Waite, Director, Wildebeeste Workshops to put together an open access printmaking studio in Lamu, Kenya. Since then I have been supported to run outreach printmaking workshops in Nairobi and Kisumu. In 2004, in collaboration with RaMoma, I was invited by The Bankside Gallery, (London) to curate an Exhibition of Kenyan printmakers as the featured artists at the Royal Society of Painter printmakers annual exhibition 2005. This exhibition was part of Africa 05 a pan-African celebration of African arts that took place in the UK and in 2006 two artist printmakers from Kenya to spent a two-month Residency in the UK .
As part of the continuing cultural exchange, I am curating an exhibition of UK and Kenyan contemporary prints will be exhibited at RaMoma Museum of Modern Art, Nairobi in 2007. Activities to date have been funded by amongst others The British Council, The Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation, Kuona Trust, RaMoma - Rahimtulla Museum of Modern Art, Nairobi, Kenya (in conjunction with The Ford Foundation) and British Airways.
Top image: Ant, Moth, Beetle, Millipede, Spider (book cover)
Middle image: Ant (page spread)
Bottom image: Millipede and Poem (page spread)