the book of the sky - Julie Johnstone

THE BOOK OF THE SKY – EXHIBITION & CATALOGUE

The Book of the Sky was an exhibition in the private library and gallery at Blackie House in Edinburgh from 3 December 2017 to 13 November 2018.

A catalogue detailing the project was published in March 2020.

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ABOUT THE BOOK OF THE SKY

The Book of the Sky was an exhibition in the private library and gallery at Blackie House in Edinburgh from 3 December 2017 to 13 November 2018.

Curated by Julie Johnstone and William Zachs, the project was initially suggested by Bill as a showcase for Julie’s contemporary book works, which he had been gradually acquiring and was keen to display. Very soon, however, Julie became curious about the possibilities of showing her work alongside items from the Blackie House collection of rare books, manuscripts, artefacts and works of art.

How might Julie’s contemporary work sit alongside Bill’s generally older materials? How might her minimal aesthetic engage with a more detailed sensibility? Both were keen to see what might arise from these combinations and from their collaboration.

An exhibition project was underway in which the practices of creating, collecting and curating came together in ways not only fascinating and surprising but also intuitive and diverting. Bill began to guide Julie through his collections, taking up thematic cues and drawing her attention to items she might like. Julie began to tease out themes in the older material that might interact with both her more abstract and her text-based works. Topics quietly arose from their conversations: the sky, the weather, air, our experience of time. The printing process, or, more generally, marks on a surface – of text, colour and form – also informed the overall process. The space within Blackie House and the expansive views from its windows became integral to the exhibition.

In response to the themes, Julie began to see her existing work in new ways and to make new works. An exhibition evolved that juxtaposed a range of items in visual and textual dialogues. The resulting display featured over fifty works by Julie (twenty-six were new productions) with thirty-six from Bill’s collection (nineteen books, three manuscripts, six antique objects and eight works of art, including artists such as Roger Ackling, Craigie Aitchison, Howard Hodgkin and Anna Atkins).

This new book seeks to document their somewhat indefinable and eclectic process. A preliminary section, ‘On exhibitions’, sets the scene at Blackie House and offers some general thoughts about the sometimes over-used word ‘curation’. The central section records the displays in a sequence newly designed for the pages of the book form. Items from Bill’s collections are described in some detail while Julie’s pieces are left for the reader to experience more directly.

Then follows a ‘Conversation’ between Julie and Bill in which they chart the process of creating, collecting and curating in a different and more considered way. Their discussion, recorded and distilled over a period of time, explores the dynamic space where the activities of creating, collecting and curating converge. The project as a whole is a conversation between artist and collector, a dialogue between present and past, new and old, and perhaps even a negotiation between the items themselves and the spaces they inhabit.

As with our exhibition visitors, we invite you to browse and explore, to find your own path through these pages and to discover the pleasures we ourselves discovered while creating what has become The Book of the Sky.