I have completed the manuscript paintings for the group show.
& below are up some notes.
In Charles Dickens writing much of the whole of the original story is buried in part under the fine accurate detail, his imagination overwhelms, the unnecessary detail is described by Orwell as an ‘outstanding unmistakable mark’. The atmosphere of Dickens descriptions are ” piled up and piled up, detail on detail, embroidery on embroidery”. He wrote with vitality, privately in daily remembrance, under pressure and seeing completion periodically. The writing seen on the page enlivens a sense of his energy and his public presence developed his writing style, in full understanding with publishers and illustrators.
Dickens wrote on loose cream and blue leaves, torn at one edge, in Prussian blue and Iron Gall inks at times with his corrections on the reverse. Each page is stamped in a double oval ‘Forster Bequest’ at the V&A. The original vibrant red bindings were bound for/by his geordie friend John Forster, the manuscripts were rebound in 1965 but due to warping there has just been an improved rebinding, pale with brown leather corners. Microfilms can be found in the National Art Library along with plenty of photocopied versions bound for constant use. The controlled environment of his writing transferred beyond his time into history. The archivists and librarians of institutions give them a great importance giving us access to a very contemporary thing, our own immediate past and a priceless stream of information.
Portable property has a lived past, an afterlife of trajectories of thought preserved by archivist’s way beyond our lifetime. His working method configures an arrangement that bears the weight of knowledge to this day. He worked with versatility over distances, covering large parts of his life story. At his writing desk and in print, he knew how to present himself. And reflecting on his time, erased from his stories is the great presence of industry and working life, all this seems presumed yet are shadowed in the masterful descriptions of people and place. Dickens works are an Institution, his workings belonged in public with a private sense of place added with a tension of speech and situation, more like a world. In fact this realer than real theatre is exactly what radiates to us in our current relationship with the world with the invention of recordings. Looking at the writing leads to further changes re-adaptations for screen and re-published a in variety of formats.
“No more can I look into the depths of this unfathomable water, wherein, as momentary lights glanced into it, I have had glimpses of buried treasure and other things submerged. It was appointed that the book should shut with a spring, for ever and for ever, when I had read but a page. It was appointed that the water should be locked in an eternal frost, when the light was playing on its surface, and I stood in ignorance on the shore.”
Chapter 3- The Night Shadows, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
To follow Dickens bicentenary events see…
