A Tale of Two Fishes

 

2014

Made in Perth, Western Australia

 

Edition of 3

Calico, aluminium, carpet, vinyl, MDF, steel

 

How we loved to build forts as children. Tearing the loungeroom apart; mining the sofa and linencupboards for building materials and constructing a magnificent den/cave/headquarters supported only by our imaginations and a precariously placed broomstick.

 

With torch in hand we’d read, colour, tellstories, exclude stinky little siblings and revel in the rich inner world of our own making. As adults we have the ability to build permanent structures which encapsulate large spaces and big adult-sized dreams. However, most of us are passive occupants of built spaces, spaces which traditionally have solid unforgiving walls and that we must share with an ever-increasing density of strangers.

 

Pillows and sheets wont keep the rain out, and are pretty much useless against intruders. We have to pay rent in our forts! Adults have to worry about this stuff. It sucks. We sing songs, make films, see therapists, drink, and fight about these sorts of worries. But we also write books! Arguably better than any other medium, the book has the power to transport the reader to another world or deliver a new perspective on the ‘real’ world in order to alleviate that angst - all in compact form.

 

Like the pillow forts of our youth, books are spaces within spaces. Places we can hide, escape, have fun. The Tale of Two Fishes Project will see a collision of books and the built environment: exploding the book into a literal encaspulation of space, and contraction of physical space into book-sized form. Pillow and blanket included.