Marie Watt Studio
Forget-me-not interpretive brochure
Pinch edited, designed and produced a 16-page publication to accompany the sculptor Marie Watt's installation Forget-me-not: Mothers and Sons, which was included in the Portland Art Museum's 2008 Contemporary Northwest Arts Awards exhibition.
The installation consists of a ten-foot-tall ring, twenty feet in diameter, walled with a web sewn from secondhand wool blankets. Attached to the walls are 220 individual portraits, also executed in wool reclaimed from blankets.
Half of the portraits depict each serviceman or -woman from Oregon killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The other half feature women chosen by Ms. Watt's male acquaintances who reflect the Iroquois view of "mother": mothers, but also strong women from history who have contributed to our culture in other ways.
This piece was commissioned and published by Marie Watt Studio to act as an interpretive aid to the installation's visitors. We printed it in two colors by cold web. Good, thoughtful design need not be expensive.
Cover.
Cover of interpretive publication created by Pinch to accompany Marie Watt's installation Forget-me-not: Mothers and Sons at the Portland Art Museum. The tabloid-sized document was printed via cold web in two colors on recycled paper. Cheap, but fly. The photograph of the partial installation was taken in Ms. Watt's studio by Tom Nutt.
Opening spread and essay.
Opening spread of Mothers and Sons: we reprinted a brief essay by Oregonian reporter Inara Verzemnieks, illustrated with photographs taken during Ms. Watt's sewing circles. At right is Ms. Watt's statement.
Catalogue pages.
Typical spread from Mothers and Sons. We documented 220 individual portraits (executed in wool) and paired them with six-line biographies of each subject. Not a fun editing job, let me tell you: the source material was extensive, and boiling it down to six terse lines per person is not something I'd like to repeat real soon.
Acknowledgements, CV.
Acknowledgements and a selected CV finish the document.
Back cover.
A detail of the installation completes the back cover. Photograph by Tom Nutt.
