Magical Octopus is a collaboration of 40 artists, poets, graphic designers, illustrators, composers, printmakers, RISO printers and publishers.
During the lockdowns last year, the pages of Magical Octopus were designed and RISO printed all over the world by 19 different RISO specialists (listed below). For Magical Octopus Sequel, KNOCKvologan searched for a match between each of the chapters of the book and an artist, poet or composer with a strong connection to the Scottish west coast and thus bringing the pages 'back home'.
Filip Andel @corkmonger_of_hamnavoe, Andy Crabb, Elaine Dempsey, Derek Crook, Seth Crook, Rufus Isabel Elliot, David Faithfull @davidfaithfull, Fiona Glen, @fiona_____glen, Katie Harris-Macleod @katieharrismacleod, Monica Haddock, Mhairi Killin @mhairikillin, Naoko Mabon @naokomabon, Sue Murdoch, Julia Parks @juliaemilyparks, Giles Perring @gilesperring, Christina Riley @christinamriley, Brodie Sim, Jan Sutch Pickard and Brian Thomas all took up the challenge to ‘translate' the original eight pages into a new work.
The Magical Octopus chapters were printed by @bananafishbooks (Shanghai, CH), @calipsopress (Cali, CO), @corners.kr (Seoul, KR), @endlesseditions (New York, USA), @gatonegroediciones (Mexico City, MX), @handsawpress (Tokyo, JP), @hatopress (London, UK), @issuepress (Grand Rapids, USA), @kabinet.studio (Antwerp, BE), @knustpress (Nijmegen, NL), @quintal_atelier (Paris, FR), @raum_press (Salamanca, SE), @risolve (Lancaster, USA), @sigridcalon (Tilburg, NL), @wobbyclub (Tilburg, NL), @janvaneyckacademie with @aliceschiavonedraws @margriet.thissen @jo.frenken (Maastricht, NL) and @knockvologan.studies with @mzwamborn. The project was initiated by artist and risoprint expert Jo Frenken.
@magicaloctopus @risobenelux @risokagaku
#magicaloctopus #knockvologan #knockvologanstudies #miekzwamborn #chartsargyllandtheisles #isleofmull #rossofmull #art #scotland #hebrides #oban #exhibition #sequel #contemporaryart #openbarn #openstudio
Artwork: Oxygen Exchange | Bloodwood Tree Sap and Copper Oxide Ink on Translucent Paper, in Bloodwood Timber Frame | 29.7 x 42cm | 2021. (sold)
Oxygen Exchange, Bloodwood Tree Sap and Copper Oxide Ink on Translucent Paper, 29.7 x 42.0 cm, 2021. This artwork was made on Gubbi Gubbi/ Kabi Kabi and Jinibara Country in South East Queensland, Australia.
This artwork encapsulates the symbiotic exchange between tree, moss and human. The organic pigment used in this artwork is made from foraged Bloodwood tree sap. This same tree is home to the moss. I pressed my face gently onto, to breathe in its woody air. The timber frame comes from the same forest where this tree lives.
Oxygen Exchange is one of a series of artworks from an on-going project entitled Sap Works.
Sap Works is an intimate study of the interwoven connectivities between bodies of trees and human beings, specifically the female body. This work intricately studies Bloodwood trees and the sap that they excrete by mapping stressed Bloodwood trees across the Sunshine Coast region and stress within the artists body.
These ‘stress exchanges’ become a series of intimate durational and ritualistic performances, derived from MacLeod’s ancestral lineage to Celtic/ Gaelic culture, landscape and language. Enigmatic sap pigment drawings are captured on handmade paper, a poetic exchange between body and tree.
Ogham, is the ancient Celtic language of the trees, and it is this ancestral knowledge that has been the conduit connecting MacLeod to this landscape after leaving the rural Hebrides of Scotland almost three years ago.
Sap Works is a process of re-connecting and understanding. Cross cultural narratives give meaning to the artists transitory belonging.