*1,000th post*! and introducing... craft tv

craft tv: Nicholas Jones from Craft Victoria on Vimeo.

This post marks our 1,000th on CLOG - wow! Here's the to the next 1,000.

To celebrate this, today we're proud to debut the first instalment of craft tv. Producted in association with Bandit Films, this is the first episode in a series of short films on individual Melbourne artists and craft makers.

Nicholas Jones is a Melbourne-based sculptor who uses books and printed paper to make works which question the manner in which books are ‘read’.

Books are capsules; vessels designed to hold information, borne of investigation or of personal expression. These objects are often venerated, held aloft as are amulets, as the source of reasoned knowledge, the fecund field awaiting the harvest. Sequestered away in dusty libraries, spines anticipating the eye of the beholder, these books tactility remains at arms length.

The physical act of folding, tearing and sewing book leaves, may be considered iconoclastic (extinguishing the fire of reason, perhaps). Although sometimes iconised for their content or historical importance, more often than not, books are discarded as cultural detritus.

These transformed books aim to highlight the poetic nature of the book as form. As historical phenomena, books have reflected the evolution of mankind, and although besieged by new technologies, the book remains steadfastly both the solver of the riddle and the creator of the labyrinth.

Hope you enjoy it, and thanks for sticking around!