Tidelines: Wave Mapping

Artist book, 60 pages full-colour edition of 200 published 2023

An ever-changing tide, the rhythmical movement of water passing over me. Like snow flakes each wave is different. Fleeting movements, constant change I am capturing the definition of shape. Tidelines is a three year project literally following the line of the tides as they roll over my paper. It is a conceptual drawing project: each drawing is made for approximately 5 minutes every five minutes. The exact time is written on each drawing. These drawings are made over a period of several hours, charting the ebb and flow of the tide. It is a very physical art piece, I am standing on the very lip of the water with tides rolling in, the water covering up to my knees.

I am building a concrete result from an apparently ethereal subject, a catalogued memory of tides. The anatomy of the wave traces a visible line over the page. It is on one level an almost scientific record-a visual recording over a defined period-and an artistic interpretation of these locations. I bind the drawings into books in the sequence as they were made. The locations vary, I began on the Zuiderstrand in The Hague, then Zealand in the Netherlands followed by Oostende in Belgium and the Île de Ré on the Atlantic Coast of France. These locations share a very real possibility of flooding. The aim is to draw attention to rising sea-levels through the medium of drawing. As the water levels rise it is the most visible edge to climate change.

The publication contains drawings and texts by myself and further written contributions by: Eddy Moors, director UNESCO IHE Delft Water Education Institute; Cees de Boer, art historian, the Netherlands; Beral Madra, Istanbul; Jean-Yves Vigneau, curator/ artist Canada; Linda Cook, Superintendent Weir Farm National Historical Park, Connecticut, USA. I work with scientists throughout my projects to ensure that the facts supporting my work are correct.

24.50 euros + postage | EMAIL TO ORDER

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Tree Mapping

Artist’s book full-colour edition of 70 (nearly sold out) published 2021

A book of trees, including images of the Xylotheque Unpacked: the Life and Death of Trees series. This began after seeing the original Xylotheque in Kasteel Groeneveld in Baarn NL, it is an exploration of trees and the study under the microscope of the diseases that affect them. It is a project begun in 2013. The publication spans some plant work (Love Letter to a Fern) through to the inspirational Zelkova Serrata from the von Siebold collection in the Hortus Botanicus Leiden, where I have been a visiting artist for several years.

The book contains texts by myself, an essay by Cees de Boer, a conversation between Ian Edwards Ecologist and myself on trees and a short text by Linda Cook, Superintendent of Weir Farm National Historical Park, Connecticut, where I was fortunate enough to be selected for an artist in residence post.

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30 euros + postage | EMAIL TO ORDER
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Sexy Trees

Artist’s publication full colour edition of 125 published in 2005 (a few remaining)

This is a book of tree images from a text installation made after my first residency at Weir Farm National Historical Park, Connecticut. Using the tape reserved for pruning or felling I wrote text onto the trees to describe my visit and experience of the landscape. It is a fascinating and small National Park that is surrounded by expensive real estate and giant 9 bedroom “cottages”. I was surrounded by wildlife including rather a lot of insects who had taken up home in the historic residency building.

The texts were attached to the trees around the pond which was the historical heart of the Park. I wanted to create a text that was read by walking. Visitors were somewhat surprised by a single line of the text, indeed many did not see the other lines but complained about this one, so it because my obvious choice for the book title. It is one of my very earliest book publications.

Price 25 euros + postage | EMAIL TO ORDER

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Other publications

2020 The Life and Death of Trees by Lilian Cooper a chapter in the book Culture, Community and Climate: Conversations and Emergent Praxis.
From Art dot Earth publications

2020 An Artist’s Herbarium by Lilian Cooper a chapter in the book Evolving the Forest
From Art Dot Earth publications

2019 herbaria 3.0 website Rudbeckia Laciniata

2019 book: Re-Peat, Peat anthology

2017 Book: Butterflies-text installation Lilian Cooper

2012 The Return of the Basques; Artist’s book: a book renaming all the present locations in Newfoundland and Labrador that I visited, with the original Basque names. In the centuries many of these names were replaced with French names and finally James Cook renamed a large number with English names and the history of the location began to be lost. Made with many thanks to the local inhabitants who posed for this book and particular thanks to Miren Egaña Goya, Basque scholar who helped me greatly with this study.

2002 Trees and Dead Flowers Artist’s book: Lilian Cooper graphic design Arnoud van Aalst, texts by myself, Tim Borlase & Sam Bower

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Selected texts written about me:

2022 Cees de Boer Exhibition texts, Botanica Poetica

2019 Exhibition catalogue: Embarrat, Festival de Creació Contemporània, Tàrrega, Spain

2018 Nature Art Cube catalogue Nature Art Biennale S. Korea

Nederlands Kring van Tekenaars: Tekenen is Meer

2016 Environmental Art Natalie Blanc Barbara Benish Routledge

2015 Geumgang Nature Art Pre-Biennale catalogue

2014 Land and People magazine, Lilian Cooper; The Trust for Public Land, San Francisco USA

Image and Narrative magazine Special Issue November UK

Drawings from Here and There; catalogue Wales and USA

2012 Nature is Breathing Yatoo-I international project, S Korea

2011 Unexpected Communication catalogue Yatoo, South Korea

Eco Art book 2, Acea eco-art collection, Rome, Italy

Riciclarti Cantiere Arte Ambientale, Padua, Italy

Instant Gratification book, Santa Monica, California USA

2007 Exhibition catalogue, Nature Art Pre-Biennale South Korea

2006 Eco-Arts catalogue, Arts for Global Development, Washington DC, USA