Marlene MacCallum

     
Marlene MacCallum
Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland
mmaccall@grenfell.mun.ca
www.marlenemaccallum.com


Biography

Marlene MacCallum is a full Professor in the Visual Arts Program at Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland. She has exhibited prints, photographs and book works in more than 80 exhibitions in 14 countries. Her works are held in over 25 public collections in Canada, the UK and the United States. Marlene co-authored with David Morrish Copper Plate Photogravure: Demystifying the Process (Focal Press 2003). Her recent research projects Artists Publishing: an investigation into digital media as a means to integrate dissemination into the creative cycle and The Visual Book: an integration of the divergent technologies of photogravure and digital processes were both funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Themed Panel

Artists’ Publishing Network: A Collaborative Proposal
This themed panel will explore issues related to the development of artists’ publishing networks. The panel members will present two related, collaborative projects, explore a series of case studies and then conclude with a directed discussion session focusing on the question: what should an artist’s publishing network constitute? The anticipated outcome from this panel will be to form a network of interested participants in a future artists’ publishing network.
The two projects that we will present are: Artists’ Publishing: An Investigation into Digital Media as a means to Integrate Dissemination into the Creative Cycle, which seeks to identify ways in which artists can gain more creative control of the relationship between their production and its interaction with the viewer/audience; and Expanded Artists’ Books: Envisioning the Future of the Book, that aims to widen the audience for the artist’s book while encouraging the creation of new work by artists in other media.
This panel will be a foundational information gathering session for the next step in creating a partnership between educational, cultural, economic institutions and individuals. We seek to identify the gaps in our current system of artist-based networks and pinpoint key issues and potential partners in developing a pertinent and sustainable network dedicated to promoting artists’ publishing. We will be actively soliciting participation in the next phase of grant support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, which offers a funding program for Partnership Grants: these are multi-institutional, multi-year projects that provide the opportunity for national and international partnering on key issues.

Open Book

Book Works: Theme and Variation
Book Works: Theme and Variation will present a series of artist’s books produced in the context of my current research project: Artists’ Publishing: an investigation into digital media as a means to integrate dissemination into the creative cycle. These works were inspired by the experience of living in Corner Brook’s Townsite area on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland. The books emphasize visual narrative that explores facets of image memory, multiplicity and sequence while providing the viewer with a visual equivalence of the uncanny. Each method of generating images and producing multiples results in a reconsideration of the content and offers varying formats for interaction by the reader.