Copyright 2009
Working with Chris Taylor as Wild Pansy Press, this was our contribution to the exhibition CRUNCHTIME!artists' responses to the global credit crisis and its timetable of associated events. We produced a publication in which a range of contributors make concrete suggestions for new cultural activities in a Post-Crunch society, with an emphasis on the practical, the cheap and the sustainable.
The Wild Pansy Book of Rainy Day Activities was available to all visitors free of charge during the exhibition and copies can be ordered from the Wild Pansy Press website.
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rainydaybook1 from wild pansy press on Vimeo.
The Wild Pansy Press put out a call for contributions last year and we've tried to include everything that came in as long as it seemed in some way to respond to what we'd asked for. The contributors are mostly artists of some sort but we hope that "some sort" stretches the definition pretty widely.
In essence, The Wild Pansy Book of Rainy Day Activities is an exhibition in book form. You, the spectator, are offered a range of ways to respond; you can curate your own show by making and doing the things we have included (and adding your own) or you can just enjoy the book as a documentation of possibilities. The first thing to do, though, is to assemble the book from four A2 sheets. Think of it as a warm-up exercise - once you've done it, making boots to walk on water or a bike out of a shopping cart will seem just that little bit less daunting. It also means that each person who folds and sews up their own copy can rightfully add their name to the list of contributors.
Just as the making process continues after we pass the book's constituent parts on to you, the audience, so we hope you will respond by sending us new projects that we can archive on our website including your own responses to and modifications of the ones in the book.
The Wild Pansy Book of Rainy Day Activities is the first of what we hope will be a series of publications that bring together work from a wide range of contributors around different shared themes, all of them exploring (and expanding) the idea of publication as a medium, not just for the distribution of art, but for its making.
Contributors to The Wild Pansy Book of Rainy Day Activities were:
David Berridge
http:verysmallkitchen.wordpress.com/
Kate Brundrett
http://www.kateb.co.uk
Wayne Clements
http://www.in-vacua.com/
Tom Cookson
http://www.tom-cookson.com
Jorn Ebner
http://www.jornebner.info/
Anna Francis
http://www.pestpublications.org.uk
Alex Hamilton
www.alex-hamilton.com
Barry Hughes
http://www.barrywhughes.com
Daniel Lehan
http://www.daniel-lehan.com
Simon Lewandowski
http://www.lewandowski.lowtech.org
Harry Malkin
www.remotegoat.co.uk/event_view.php?uid=41637
Graham Martin
www.g-martin.net
Phil McCollam
www.philrules.com
Ellen Mueller
ellenmueller.com
ellenmueller.blogspot.com
Chris Taylor & Craig Woods
www.wildpansypress.com
Eric Wilhelm
http://www.instructables.com/member/ewilhelm/
Lynne Williams
arte_povera_nova@hotmail.com
Zieak
www.zieak.com