Jenny, Ian, Simon, Steve, Ruby

Mixed media on parchment
Calligraphy by Angela Swan (Simon, Steve, Ruby), Courtesy the artist
Meadow Arts commission 2016

These works re-create Facebook posts as mediaeval illuminated manuscripts. On the one hand, they are a tender celebration of the sharing of thoughts, ideas, experiences and aspirations; on the other, by referencing the exclusive and arcane nature of the earliest of books, they suggest the involuntary archiving of self-expression that sits behind the casual interface of our digital lives.

For this series, which links one of the earliest forms of publishing to a most recent and digital one, Richards researched and taught himself a number of reputably difficult techniques that go back centuries. The process of creating illuminated manuscripts was originally carried out in mediaeval  monasteries by dedicated groups of highly skilled monks for whom this was a spiritual and devotional, as well as functional, exercise.

 

About the artist

Mark Richards

Mark Richards exhibited in Never Judge a Book, Richard Booth’s Bookshop, 2016; and In Another Light, Croft Castle, 2015, commissioned for both by Meadow Arts.

Image: Mark Richards, Untitled 1, 2004. Marble, light.