Edwin Jager
 Iconometer #48

 Look What I Found!

Caution: Before you read on, consider your choices.

If you arrived here from my website, the i48 video or elsewhere on the internet, you might want to read a physical copy of Iconometer 48 first. You can get a copy from my storenvy shop here:

http://mynameizedwin.storenvy.com/products/19086370-iconometer-48-an-artists-book-by-edwin-jager

You can virtually read Iconometer 48 here: https://vimeo.com/176554604

Maybe you have access to the analog version, but clicked on the QR code, watched the video and want to keep your experience virtual. If so, you’re ready to read on!

Or, you have read the printed version and you’re ready to learn more.

Please proceed with your chosen method of delivery.

Introduction

Early in 2015, I received a package in the mail from my mentor, Wendy Cain who retired in June 2015, from teaching printmaking and papermaking at the Ontario College of Art, Ontario College of Art and Design, Ontario College of Art and Design University (it was the Ontario College of Art when I went there http://www.ocadu.ca/about/history.htm)

I believe that these writings were composed over a couple of years while I was an undergraduate at OCA. OCAD, OCAD U and must have served as a manifesto of sorts. Here’s some of my recollection of the projects with some supplemental scans from notebooks of the time.

Edwin Jager: Notes exploring the connections between a series of ongoing projects.
1990-1994

Edwin Jager: Notes exploring the connections between a series of ongoing projects.
1990-1994

Paper Is Dead. Long Live Paper

When I was in high school and working as a docent at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, I saw an exhibition of handmade paper and book art. I had never seen handmade paper and books before and was totally fascinated, immediately doing what research I could into the papermaking process. With my buddy, Ron Hewson (http://www.chesleyhouse.net/ron-hewson), we built some rudimentary screens and used a blender to grind up some recycled paper into pulp. We bought some offcuts from the Rumpel Felt Company to transfer (couche) the wet pulp from the screen for the process of drying. I don’t remember how we pressed the paper but we actually managed to make a few really crappy sheets.

Needless to say, when I found out that OCA had papermaking equipment and that you could use the facilities, I was really excited and attended an orientation session in my first semester, only to find out that you had to be enrolled in a printmaking class to use the shop. This motivated me to talk my way into Wendy’s serigraphy class without the prerequisites (I told her I had learned EVERYTHING about screenprinting in high school, only to completely screw up my first print at OCA) and not only get into the paper facility but also to explore all of the other things printmaking had to offer. So, I spent my four years at OCA making a lot of paper: sheets, pulp-paintings, sculpture and castings (and printing too, and books!).

Paper was on my mind constantly and what I perceived to be its shifting role in society.  “Paper Is Dead. Long Live Paper” was a way of engaging with these issues. It’s pretty interesting to read some twenty odd years later, especially considering how much we have debated the future of the book over the years. I was somewhat focused on television and didn’t really have any notion about the changes that the internet would bring about. This text may have been inspired by a conversation I overheard around the time while riding the streetcar. Several pre-teen boys got onto the car and one of them very loudly proclaimed, “Books? Books are dead. It’s been television since the 70s.”

Edwin Jager: Paper is Everywhere! 1990-1994

For your entertainment, I’m including scans of some early drafts of this statement, although, fair warning! I was really into writing in a stream-of-consciousness style at the time, so…it gets a bit tedious and incomprehensible in places. The debate over the long-term health of paper continues. Here’s an article, posted by a radio/tv broadcaster on facebook (of course) called, “Why paper is the real ‘killer app’”: http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170120-why-paper-is-the-real-killer-app

Edwin Jager: An early draft of the “Paper is Dead. Long Live Paper.” manifesto.
1990-1994 (page one)

Edwin Jager: An early draft of the “Paper is Dead. Long Live Paper.” manifesto.

1990-1994 (page two)

Edwin Jager: An early draft of the “Paper is Dead. Long Live Paper.” manifesto.
1990-1994 (page three)

Edwin Jager: An early draft of the “Paper is Dead. Long Live Paper.” manifesto.
1990-1994 (page four)

Edwin Jager: An early draft of the “Paper is Dead. Long Live Paper.” manifesto.
1990-1994 (page five)

Edwin Jager: An early draft of the “Paper is Dead. Long Live Paper.” manifesto.
1990-1994 (page six)

Bark

We used to take regular trips down to the Toronto Forestry wood dump for free and interesting materials. I found a few pieces of bark that had been stripped from some large old trees. The largest piece was about a square yard (0.836127m²) and my friend Allen MacDonald made some really awesome latex molds of them that I was going to cast in recycled paper pulp. I had this idea to “build” trees from component parts—trees get cut down, reduced to cellulose and then rebuilt as sheets of paper, then pulped up and put together as facsimiles of nature in the gallery— but the project was too huge, the material of the mould meant that I couldn’t get the pulp to dry properly and, well, sadly, I never got back to the project eventually losing the moulds when I moved.

Edwin Jager: Notes related to the “Bark” project. 1990-1994

Money

I had this idea to print my own currency as a way of exploring the disconnect between the perceived or designated value of something versus its actual value. I got as far as consulting with my buddy Mike Doxey’s (http://www.mdoxey.com) dad (he was an economics professor) who persuaded me that it would actually be illegal for me to print my own money as a competitor to the Canadian dollar. So, I had a plan to make up a country and create its currency but as it got more and more complicated I lost interest in the project. Funny, I was just reading this article on bitcoin, that seems to have parallels: http://www.e-flux.com/architecture/superhumanity/68703/blockchain-future-states/. For an example of a well-known alternative, there’s Canadian Tire Money: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Tire_money

Edwin Jager: Notes and sketches for the “Money” project. 1990-1994 

Urban Beautification Project

Contrary to most of the other projects, I actually completed this one. I’ll drop a picture in here for your entertainment but I plan on discussing it in more detail in a future blog post.

Edwin Jager: Documentation of the Urban Beautification Project installation. 1990-1994 

Paper Wall (forest)

This was another unrealized project but one that I thought through enough to propose for installation at the OCA Student Gallery. I was looking for ways to make sculptural forms with paper and printmaking and, like Bark, explore the component parts that make up a system. Additionally, there were themes of decomposition and

an attempt to show the “life cycles in both man-made and natural objects.” As you can see, my proposal lacked clarity and the project didn’t go anywhere. Elements of “Paper Wall” were incorporated into a work using piles of paper and sound that I exhibited at the annual scholarship exhibition. That project can be seen in the background of the image that closes out i48.

Edwin Jager: Notes and sketches for the “Forrest” project. 1990-1994 

Edwin Jager: Response letter to “Forrest” project proposal. 1990-1994 

Edwin Jager: “Forrest” project proposal. 1990-1994 (page one)

Edwin Jager: “Forrest” project proposal. 1990-1994 (page two)

Edwin Jager: “Forrest” project proposal. 1990-1994 (page three)

Edwin Jager: “Forrest” project proposal. 1990-1994 (page four)

Notes on i48

Speaking of which, a little bit about the construction of #48: I wanted to recreate the envelope and contents that were mailed to me as closely as possible while also fitting it to the constraints of the Iconometer cover and dimensions. This required printing double-sided and scaling all the elements down to fit. I have a cache of old copy paper that was both thin and yellow enough to match the age of a decades-old document. I also needed to make custom envelopes (tip: here’s the online template tool I used: http://www.templatemaker.nl ). Michelle (Michelle Glines Jager), had two suggestions for this issue: One was that it would be a fun commentary on the manifesto to include some sort of online/video component to the piece…thus the QR code. But the code needed the right place and the envelope also needed to be tipped into the cover in a way that would be both practical and visually pleasing. Michelle’s second suggestion was to add a back page and include a picture of Wendy and me. After a little digging, I found a 35mm slide of us talking about the scholarship exhibition that I mentioned above.

Along the way, the issue has become a tribute to Wendy. When I really wanted to make paper, Wendy gave me a chance. She taught me so much and also served as my faculty advisor. It was Wendy who first suggested a subscription program for Iconometer and she was also the first subscriber. I can say, without exaggeration, that I wouldn’t be where I am today without Wendy’s advice and mentorship. It’s a loss for the students at OCA OCADU that they won’t have the opportunity to learn from her but I’m glad to see her get the time to make more paper! (http://www.wendycain.ca ) Thanks Wendy!

https://vimeo.com/176554604

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edwinjager.net

Edwin Jager: Edwin Jager and Wendy Cain at the OCA Scholarship Exhibition. 1994