The Library and the Damage Done

Malicious Damage
The Defaced Library Books of Kenneth Halliwell and Joe Orton
Ilsa Colsell
Donlon Books, London, 2013 

From the blurb:
"In 1962 John (Joe) Orton and Kenneth Halliwell were charged with, "larceny, malicious damage and willful damage," involving hundreds of books in the Islington Library's collection. Over the previous three years the pair had been stealing these books, removing thousands of illustrations and either using them to create alternative dust jackets for other books (which were then returned quietly to the library's shelves), or pasting them directly into a large collage spanning the interior walls of their flat. The reconfigured dust jackets were part of a decade of often shared creative endeavor. Malicious Damage looks closely at the collaged dust jackets still remaining within the archive at Islington Local History Centre and focuses on the early collaborative nature of Orton and Halliwell's relationship."

Interior wall collage in the Noel Road flat

Joe in cap

Kenneth in wig

Plans for Nigel

Nigel Henderson, Parallel of Art and Life
Victoria Walsh
Thames & Hudson, London, 2001 

Nigel Henderson was an interesting character that I'm keen to learn more about. Well known as part of the Independent Group with the Smithsons and Eduardo Paolozzi, he also worked with Richard Hamilton on several important exhibitions at the ICA.

Pictogram, 1949-51

As a solo artist he made use of his formative association with the Paris surrealists and pals like Roland Penrose, employing collage and photography to capture the anarchic energy of urban life and mass-produced visual culture around his East London home through children's street games and the often overlooked inspiration to be found in detritus and graffiti.

Collage, 1949

Chisenhale Road, 1951

Chisenhale Road, 1951

Chisenhale Road, 1951

Chisenhale Road, 1951

Chisenhale Road, 1951

Barber's Shop Window, c.1949-53

Distressed Door, c.1949-53

Alison Smithson on site of Hunstanton School, c.1953

Head of Man, 1956

Atlas, 1954

Floor Collage, 1956

From 'Lovely Linda' series, c.1977

In later years he moved to Thorpe-le-Soken in Essex and taught photography at Norwich School of Art. He remained equivocal about his talents and art in general. Perhaps that's the effect East Anglia has on people.

Larging It

Creating in Collage
Natalie D'Arbeloff and Jack Yates
Studio Vista, London, 1970

I have quite a few old Studio Vista art and design guidebooks. Some are written by industry types for students and professionals, others like this seem written by and intended for the more amateur. The writers were a pair of old skool Hampstead bohemians who taught classes at the Camden Arts Centre when it was more of a down-at-heel community enterprise rather than the glamourous gallery space it is today.

The surrealists quickly grasped the potential for mental leaps and shifting associations in collaged media, and it remains a potent area for creativity in the digital age, though the images in this book were all designed using physical cut and paste technique. It's a relic of the past, as I was reminded looking at this page on Found Objects of another blog I used to write on some years ago.