Today, I have the privilege of featuring a powerfully affecting work made by North Island artists, Meliors Simms and Bethwyn Littler. Munted is their collaborative response to the Christchurch earthquake and I am grateful to Meliors and Bethwyn for offering this handmade book - a significant and meaningful chronicle of these times - to MANY AS ONE.
A few words from Meliors. . . "The word 'munted' is a wonderfully dry kiwi colloquialism for 'broken' and has become widely used even in formal situations to describe the infrastructure damage caused by the earthquake. Bethwyn and I offer this collaged book with heartfelt compassion, respect and sympathy for everyone who survived that awful day. It is not our tragedy to describe, but we hope that by bearing witness we can contribute in some tiny way to the recovery process."
"Today Bethwyn and I met up for a Frugal with the Bruegel session of collaborative altered book making, our first in many weeks. We spontaneously decided to devote our session to working together on a single book, responding to the Christchurch earthquake. Without any particular preparation or planning, we began making a book which may turn out to be our most coherent narrative yet. Drawing only on our collection of old (mostly) children's books, which includes nothing specific to Christchurch, yet the result feels to us very evocative of our emotional response witnessing the earthquake from a distance.
Making this book feels cathartic and healing: a compulsion to channel survivors' guilt, grief and helplessness into creativity. Working with focus and synchronicity we got about half way through the project this afternoon and hope to have it finished in our next session, ready to auction off as a fundraiser for a Christchurch earthquake response fund. . . " from Melior's blog entry, Rapid Response.
Melior's blog - Bibliophilia
"Like many. . . outside of Christchurch, I have developed a profound sense of appreciation for my flushing toilet, hot shower, endless drinking water, electric power, cosy bed, smooth streets, sweet fresh air, fully serviced city and most of all, the solid ground beneath my feet. It may be a while before everyone in Christchurch can enjoy such amenities again. Bethwyn and I hope that our book can provide some small contribution towards Christchurch's recovery. . "
To be in the draw for Munted and a selection of other fine artworks for Christchurch, please consider making a donation to the MANY AS ONE appeal. You will find an orange donate button to the right of this page as well as on the MANY AS ONE site. Thank you.
