File 02: Shark-net seahorses of Balmoral : a harbour memoir / Robert Adamson & Peter Kingston

PXA 7738

file

2012

Graphic Materials, Prints

9677669

23 prints (1 box) - linocut, ink, typescript - sheets 29 x 32 cm, in wooden box 40 x 40 x 4 cm

The poet Robert Adamson and the artist Peter Kingston, both born in 1943, grew up on opposite sides of Sydney Harbour: the poet on the north shore at Neutral Bay with Taronga Park and Balls Head nearby, and the artist on the south side at Vaucluse, near the now lost Wintergarden and Sydney Stadium. They shared a deep attachment to the foreshore and water, although their paths diverged: Kingston was sent to a prestigious private school, and Adamson graduated from delinquency to Long Bay Gaol; and Kingston eventually moved across the Harbour to Lavender Bay, while Adamson left for the Hawkesbury River. However in this autobiographical collaboration they recall some of the landmarks, formative events, and magical experiences of their childhood, like the seahorses that Robert Adamson used to see taunting a groper on the other side of the shark net at Balmoral, where he swam every day.

Unbound artists' book containing 21 prints by Peter Kingston, including three long internal wrappers, a folding leporello, the upper of the box lid, and the illustrated colophon in the base lining. The linocut prints are on Japanese lwaki Mulberry paper, using Sakura oil based inks, by way of the Luke Sciberras wooden spoon printing technique. The poems are set in Bembo and printed on Rising Stonehenge with wrapper supports of Suecia Antiqua Chamois. The upper lining of the lid reproduces the artist's own musical score for piano, a song without words for Francis Webb. A light sensitive circuit plays this piece when the box is opened. Box by Ian MacLeod.

1. Heaving the rope
2. The green flash
3. Net makers
4. The river caves
5. The Phantom
6. The Wintergarden
7. The Sydney Stadium
8. The Long Bay Debating Society
9. Chowder Bay
10. Sugarloaf Bay, Middle Harbour
11. The shark-net seahorses of Balmoral
12. The midnight zoo
13. MV Anytime
14. Francis Webb at Ball's Head
15. Colophon.

A photographic portrait of Robert Adamson and Peter Kingston by Juno Gemes is reproduced in the colophon. Box and calico bag silkscreened by Mary-Lou Whelan.

In copyright:
Copyright holder:: Peter Kingston
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, and Courtesy copyright holder

Transferred from F/2033, February 2024

Designed, printed and assembled by Nicholas Pounder at the sign of the Polar Bear, Tamarama, MMXII

Lettered A and signed by the poet and the artist. "One of twenty six copies."

Limited edition of 26 copies, lettered A-Z, each signed by the poet and the artist.