New Artists’ Book

The Richard Sc…

an exegesis

By Leona Christie, e…

Book Preview

“Lists and Projects”

“Lists and Projects” by Claudia Norton, College Hill Independent

Article in the Brown University student newspaper, the College Hill Independent, about the collaboration.  Published Nov 2, 2012 

“How to Make a Print with your Autistic Savant Brother”

“How to Make a Print with your Autistic Savant Brother” assumes that you, after viewing this instructional video, have all the knowledge and know-how to make a print with your autistic savant brother. This video kicks off with a local TV news story featuring Gavin, known as the Rainman of Birmingham, Michigan. First presented at the Southern Graphics Council International (SGCI) Conference, March 15, 2012, in New Orleans.

The Art Opening: “Hiding Places: From Memory”

At the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, June 25, 2011. Gavin brings his spiral notebook.

                                                                    Posing in front of the main exhibit entrance, with the catalog.

                                                                    Taking notes on the hors d’oeurves.

      

An installation of 18 framed embossed prints, “Dark Woods, Light Woods” and a vitrine of Gavin’s recent notebook writings and typings, plus curators’ Amy Chaloupka and Leslie Umberger’s thoughtfully written wall texts. Also included in this show-within-a-larger-show about memory were wonderful drawings by Gregory Blackstock, George Widener, Mark Fox, and Katerina Šedá, and our collaboration was exhibited in a room along with witty and memorable image/text drawings by the self-reflective artworld cipher (and New York acquaintance), William Powhida.                       

Transcribed by Gavin from the wall text, and translated into his cadence and form.  A re-translation:

Autistic savant

Gavin Christie records

What Gavin Christie remembers

In meticulous lists

From forty year old television listings

To roadside details of highways traveled

Leona Christie translates

Gavin’s original documents into archival prints

Highlighting

Gavin’s artistic value

                                                                     

Lists and photographs at the chocolate store in Sheboygan (to remember)

Gavin tells the girls who work at the Chocolate Shoppe what day of the week they were born, and then requests to pose for a group picture with “thumbs up,” taken with his camera.

         On left, Gavin’s photograph, which he allowed me to re-photograph from his camera’s LCD viewfinder.

  

A Day in Sheboygan, looking for a memory card

         We were on a mission to find and buy a new memory card for Gavin’s digital camera, but could not find one anywhere. The local magazine store only carried film.

Arrive in Sheboygan, Wisconsin

…almost eleven non-fictional hours after we began our journey, at 8:35 pm CDT.

Meet the parents in Sheboygan, who came in their own car and arrived a few hours earlier. At the hotel suite, we upload the day’s photos onto my laptop and Gavin enjoys taking photographs from the monitor with his digital camera. (Also: his hotel room number)