Gintaras / Amber

[Melbourne : the artist], 2019. Artist’s book (267 x 150 mm). Narrow octavo, photolithograph wrappers, pp. [22], printed letterpress, photolithographic relief prints, glassine sheets, bookmark made of Lithuanian fabric with Baltic amber pendant. Published by the artist and author in an edition of 18 signed and numbered copies.

‘Gintaras is Lithuanian for amber. Writer Sasnaitis’s family originates from Lithuania, one of the Baltic states where amber has been gathered, mined, traded and treasured since antiquity. In this collaborative artist book, amber represents the turbulent relationship between earth and air, stasis and movement, father and daughter. Sasnaitis’s text weaves between Crawford’s images of traditional Baltic textile patterns and pages of brilliantly coloured cellophane that imitate the infinite variegations of amber. The visual space of the page is by turn crowded, restrained and spacious; meaning evolves and accrues with each turn of the page’. – artist’s statement

Francesca Sasnaitis is a writer and artist. Originally from Melbourne, she now lives in Perth where she is a doctoral candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Western Australia. Her poetry, short fiction and reviews have been published online and in various print journals and anthologies.

Marian Crawford is a Melbourne based visual artist whose works explore the relationships between the book, fine art printmaking processes, and the printed image in contemporary culture. Crawford is a senior lecturer in Fine Art at Monash Art Design &​ Architecture, Melbourne, Australia, where she has worked for ten years.

Collections : National Library of Australia, State Library of Queensland.