shackled in bookspace

About a year ago I was at an opening for some artist friends at the gallery of Marquis Art and Frame here in Wilkes-Barre. During the evening I also saw the beginnings of a project called Landfill Art which was the brainchild of owner Ken Marquis and consisted of a number of pieces made from hubcaps. Quite frankly, it blew me away. After expressing interest in participating to Ken I promptly got busy and forgot about it.The idea of doing some sort of bookish structure percolated in the hindbrain for quite a while, finally resulting in the Landfill ArtBook.

When I went to pick up my raw material I found a pair of Fiat hubcaps. Coincidentally, my first car was a Fiat 850 sedan, so I grabbed them and hotfooted it home. After priming them I marbled them in the circular pattern with black oil color thinned out and manipulated on a bath of paste. The rims are covered with black Kaduna goat, pared very thin. The textblock is an accordion of Hahnemuhle Biblio adhered to the interior lining of foamcore covered with black Hahnemuhle Ingres. The piece rests on a stand made from binders’ board covered with black Kaduna. The stand holds both of the hubcap covers in alignment, alleviating the need for any sort of hinge.

Check out some of the incredible work comprising this visionary  project at www.landfillart.org.