Hers: a primer of sorts
Tia Blassingame, USA
| Hers: a primer of sorts;
Tia Blassingame, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA, 2013 Hers: a primer of sorts is dedicated to the countless women for whom education and scholarship are restricted or forbidden. Despite lack of opportunity or access, threats of violence, and intimidation, these female readers gain strength and knowledge from the texts that they consume and alternately hide under clothing, farm or factory equipment, and kitchenware. This idea of limits or restrictions on access to education, particularly for women, seems like an outmoded notion. Yet globally it persists. Contemporary women from various cultures and ages find refuge in books and often at risk to their own physical or emotional safety. Detailing topography, language, population numbers, and other basic facts, the discarded pages from an outdated almanac serve as the book's cover and the female protagonist's cultural and physical landscape. Though covers depicting North America and Europe were not employed, this does not imply that obstacles to women in those regions are absent. This primer mixes ornate letter forms to create patterns and screens, the main text is concealed and revealed just as a woman or girl in any country or community might hide a book or banned text. Dimensions: 4 1/2" x 11 1/8"; Medium: digital printing on discarded maps and Japanese rice paper Tia Blassingame is a book artist exploring the intersection of architecture, race, and perception. She received her B.A. in Architecture from Princeton, and her M.A. in Printmaking/ Book Arts from Corcoran College of Art + Design. She is the Image Coordinator, Race & Ethnicity in Advertising - American: 1890 - Today at the Advertising Education Foundation, a joint project with the Smithsonian. Blassingame has been a Teaching Artist at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, the National Building Museum, University of Maryland, College Park, and a Visiting Artist at the Nature Conservancy and Wilson College. She has been an artist-in-residence at Yaddo and MacDowell Colony. In 2009, she founded Primrose Press - a letterpress & book arts studio - to publish her own work and collaborations with fellow visual artists and writers. Her artists' books are in international collections such as the State Library of Queensland. primroseletterpress@gmail.com |