Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor —

It’s shaping up to be a very busy weekend at the Blue Star Contemporary where the first ever art book fair in the region will be paired with a book-related spring exhibition, both called Novel Ideas. The events are timed to coincide with the start of Contemporary Art Month and the huge AWP conference of writers and publishers taking place at the Convention Center.

“We never had an art book fair in this region,” said Blue Star’s executive director Mary Heathcott. “New York has it, San Francisco has one, but there’s no such event in Texas or the Southwest region of the U.S. We saw a gap there. Here in San Antonio we have presses that have to go outside to promote their books. So, this is a way to highlight what is happening in our community.”

Thirty exhibitors will display hundreds of items, including traditional art books, artist-made books, art prints and zines, and even “sculptural” books, noted Heathcott. And, indeed, San Antonio presses, large and small, are well represented including French & Michigan, Flowerpot Books, Cathywampus Press, Coyote Bones Press, Feral Editions, Hare and Hound Press, Artpace, Southwest School of Art, and others.

The fair’s displays will be positioned throughout the Blue Star galleries where the spring shows are already installed, so fair ticket-holders get to experience two-for-the-price-of-one art events. Related programming -such as talks, signing, and pop-up workshops – is included, as is a presentation by keynote speaker Julie Ault, a curator, writer, artist and editor from New York. Her talk is scheduled for 3 p.m., Saturday at the nearby SAYS SI facility, located at 1518 S. Alamo St. The fair closes Saturday night with a concert at Paper Tiger.

But the current exhibits will stay on view through May 3. In addition to the Novel Ideas exhibition that features five artists, there are also three solo shows, and a small special exhibit Publishing Against the Grain in a separate room.

As you enter the Blue Star space, you’ll first encounter the Novel Ideas show, featuring Madrid-based Emilia Azcarate, Syracuse, N.Y. artist Ann Clarke, Berlin-based Arturo Herrera, Korean-born Hye-Ryoung Min and German artist Benedikt Terwiel.

“The works in this exhibition converge where they consider books, and transversely language and the written word, and the fragmentary nature of the memories and narratives we give concreteness to through books, notes, journals, records and language,” writes Jacqueline Saragoza McGilvray, the exhibtion’s curator, in the exhibition guide. “The works confront this idea by creating collections and series of works that systematically expose histories.”

One of those series is displayed on the back wall, featuring several large woven rugs. The work of Ann Clarke, they consist of identifiable figurative shapes as well as “writing,” which may or may not be actually legible, but evokes notes, journal notes, book texts or archival records. Two of those, “Mother and Child: Day” and “Mother and Child: Night” are especially intriguing. Though similar, they seem to represent opposites, one representing the past and the other the darker present. In her notes, the artist speaks of her 99-year-old mother for whom “all roads wind back through the past,” confusing and challenging the daughter in multiple ways.

On the opposite wall, are smallish actual books that artist Arturo Herrera finds at flea markets and transforms by painting the covers or otherwise altering them into altogether different objects.

Glass cases positioned along a partition wall display Hye-Ryoung Min’s multiple journals, written in Korean. Her artist’s statement says: “What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.” Those rediscovered journals where necessary to her, she explains, because “It didn’t seem like I could continue walking forward without facing what I left behind me, regardless of how it was shaped, what kind of scent or odor it had, or whether there were unbroken thorns underneath a thick layer of dust.”  (Psychoanalysts would agree with her.)

But the most surprising and labor-intensive exhibit is Candace Hicks’ installation “Secret Passage” in the Middle Gallery. There, you will be startled to see a large, hand-sewn fabric composition book suspended in the air, with “pages” of the book -all made of fabric – lined up behind to the end of the gallery. You can stand there and read the text of a mystery story, each word of which was stitched in by the artist and is perfectly legible. The amount of detailed work that went into it is mind-blowing. In addition, Hicks is also showing a series of similar, though smaller, “soft sculpture” books on shelves lining the walls of the space. There are cotton gloves you must use to leaf through the books, but again, every letter is precisely stitched and readable. Her title “Secret Passage” apparently refers to a text passage that gives a clue to the mystery of the central installation. We doubt than anyone will have the patience and time to read through the whole thing, but the small books on the shelves are more manageable time-wise. Titled “Common Threads,” these embroidered soft books deal with coincidences the artists discovered in her readings.

In the last, Project Space Gallery, you’ll find Houston artist Sarah Welch’s installation “Giveth and Taketh” which takes the shape of a reading room. Among other things, Welch is known for her cartoons, and the installation features many small books that you can freely pick up to read stories that she both wrote and illustrated. The room also contains “Rosie’s RV” which is supposed to be where one of her characters lives. This installation will probably appeal more to people familiar with her comics characters.

The Novel Ideas Art Book Fair, March 6, 5-9 p.m., and March 7, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., 7-11 p.m. closing concert at Paper Tiger; Blue Star Contemporary, 116 Blue Star; $15 Friday, $20 Saturday. Spring exhibist will be on view through May 3, admission $3-$5; free during certain hours; 210-227-6960 or www.bluestarcontemporary.org