Sleeping Near the River
Marie Shannon, Artist
This is one of the
artists books
in our collection.
It was made in
Whanganui, Whanganui Region, New Zealand
in 2021.
See full details
Object Detail
About the Work
This
artist
book
accompanied
Marie
Shannon's
exhibition
at
the
Sarjeant
Gallery
titled
'Sleeping
Near
the
River'.
It
contains
the
full
transcript
of
the
artist's
dream
diary
that
she
kept
while
she
was
artist-in-residence
at
Tylee
Cottage
in
2019.
Limited
edition
of
100.
Auckland-based artist Marie Shannon was the Sarjeant Gallery’s artist in residence at Tylee Cottage for three months in 2019. Working in photography and film, the cottage and Whanganui inspired two distinct bodies of work – pared back photographs of the cottage’s architectural details, as well as video works. Shannon spent time at the North Mole where the Whanganui River meets the Tasman Sea and she was interested in the wildness of the beach and how the two bodies of water met. During her residency she filmed the outgoing tide and the incoming waves and this moving image forms the background for a work titled Sleeping Near the River.
Shannon has sometimes used her own dreams to construct narratives for her video works. She comments “During my time as artist in residence I was interested in the way the river might sit in my subconscious. I kept a dream diary, for no specific purpose other than to observe where I went when I was asleep, now that I was no longer home”. In her video, text appears on the screen - a date, then a list of words emerging one by one, containing the themes of that night’s dreams. This is followed by a single sentence of spoken text, which is the first sentence of the narrative of the dream. The work is expanded in the form of an artist’s book where the full narrative of the dream is reproduced.
In contrast to this video work are six photographs of architectural details from the cottage – the corners of the attic bedroom, a dormer window, a lightshade, bookcase and a ceiling beam. To create these sparse images, Shannon returned to model making, which was a feature of her earlier photographic work. These replicas of simple spaces are to scale and allowed Shannon to photograph the interiors of the cottage when she returned to her Auckland base, where she was careful to light them from the same direction as the light falls in the cottage. In these photographs it’s difficult to tell what is fact and fiction as Shannon’s images are faithful facsimiles. In a world where image making is instant, Shannon’s use of a large-format camera means that many elements need to be considered very carefully before an image is taken. The photographs in production and subject matter are contemplative and considered. Shannon’s Whanganui residency focused on her immediate environs and the quiet conversation of light, line and the slow passing of time.
- Greg Donson, Curator & Public Programmes Manager, exhibition text for 'Sleeping Near the River', Sarjeant on the Quay,14 Aug - 14 Nov 2021
Auckland-based artist Marie Shannon was the Sarjeant Gallery’s artist in residence at Tylee Cottage for three months in 2019. Working in photography and film, the cottage and Whanganui inspired two distinct bodies of work – pared back photographs of the cottage’s architectural details, as well as video works. Shannon spent time at the North Mole where the Whanganui River meets the Tasman Sea and she was interested in the wildness of the beach and how the two bodies of water met. During her residency she filmed the outgoing tide and the incoming waves and this moving image forms the background for a work titled Sleeping Near the River.
Shannon has sometimes used her own dreams to construct narratives for her video works. She comments “During my time as artist in residence I was interested in the way the river might sit in my subconscious. I kept a dream diary, for no specific purpose other than to observe where I went when I was asleep, now that I was no longer home”. In her video, text appears on the screen - a date, then a list of words emerging one by one, containing the themes of that night’s dreams. This is followed by a single sentence of spoken text, which is the first sentence of the narrative of the dream. The work is expanded in the form of an artist’s book where the full narrative of the dream is reproduced.
In contrast to this video work are six photographs of architectural details from the cottage – the corners of the attic bedroom, a dormer window, a lightshade, bookcase and a ceiling beam. To create these sparse images, Shannon returned to model making, which was a feature of her earlier photographic work. These replicas of simple spaces are to scale and allowed Shannon to photograph the interiors of the cottage when she returned to her Auckland base, where she was careful to light them from the same direction as the light falls in the cottage. In these photographs it’s difficult to tell what is fact and fiction as Shannon’s images are faithful facsimiles. In a world where image making is instant, Shannon’s use of a large-format camera means that many elements need to be considered very carefully before an image is taken. The photographs in production and subject matter are contemplative and considered. Shannon’s Whanganui residency focused on her immediate environs and the quiet conversation of light, line and the slow passing of time.
- Greg Donson, Curator & Public Programmes Manager, exhibition text for 'Sleeping Near the River', Sarjeant on the Quay,14 Aug - 14 Nov 2021
This record has related works.
Measurements
211 x 150 x 4 mm
Media
photo-mechanical print on paper, bound with card covers
Subject Place
Description
Artist book titled 'Sleeping Near the River' containing text and images. Front cover has printed text title 'Sleeping Near the River' with vertical rows of repeated text above and below the title including words such as Family, Home, Cats, Boats, Yoga listed in alphabetical order. The background is an image of the surface of water with ripples. The back cover has the rippled water surface image and no text. Inside the book are cream pages with black printed text prefaced by dates, a dream journal.
Credit Line
Collection of the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui. Purchased, 2022
Collection Type
Permanent collection
Acquisition Date
20 Aug 2022
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Accession Number:
2022/8/1