Launch of Raking Leaves – Independent Publisher of Contemporary

PRESS RELEASE
Launch of Raking Leaves – Independent
Publisher of Contemporary Artists’ Book
Projects
Launch Events:
20 March
7-8 PM, The Bidoun Lounge, Art Park, Art Dubai, Madinat, Jumeirah, Dubai
27 March
6.30-8PM, The Serpentine Gallery, London
Raking Leaves is a new publishing initiative established to commission artist projects
that take the form of a book. Founded by the independent curator, Sharmini Pereira, all
titles published under the Raking Leaves imprint embody artist projects that explore the
manifold uses of the book to disclose their content. Raking Leaves books are stand-alone
projects made by some of the most important contemporary artists from around the world.
Through the publication of affordable, innovatively designed artist book projects and special
editions, Raking Leaves seeks to encourage a wider awareness, ownership and presentation
of contemporary art to audiences globally.
To mark the launch of Raking Leaves two outstanding new book projects have been
commissioned – Pearls by Simryn Gill and The One Year Drawing Project – May 2005
–October 2007 by Muhanned Cader, Chandraguptha Thenuwara, Thamotharampillai
Shanaathanan and Jagath Weerasinghe.
Pearls
Simryn Gill
250 x 205 mm
204 pages printed offset, with 245 colour images,
soft-cover with book jacket (illus.)
Designed by Herman Lelie and Stefania Bonelli
ISBN: 978 0 95566740 4
RRP: £20
Pearls is a remarkable photographic record of Simryn Gill’s ongoing bead-making project,
that was begun in 1999, in which she makes books into bead necklaces. This book brings
together over sixty sets of beads, each one unique and particular to the specific volume from
which it has been created. Titles as far-ranging as Gandhi’s autobiography, Sylvia Plath’s The
Bell Jar, The Beano Book and Che Guevara’s Bolivian Diaries form a selection of the printed
matter used by the artist to create a rich and stirring collection of objects. With the inclusion of
two short pieces of writing by the artist, this beautifully considered book underlines Gill’s
subtle brilliance as an artist of outstanding breadth and imagination.
The One Year Drawing Project: May 2005 – October 2007
Muhanned Cader
Chandraguptha Thenuwara
Thamotharampillai Shanaathanan
Jagath Weerasinghe
275 mm x 195 mm
416 pages printed offset with 208 colour images (illus.),
soft cover with French fold.
Designed by Valle Walkley
ISBN: 978 0 95566741 1
RRP: £20
The One Year Drawing Project is an experimental publishing project that follows a 29-month
period of drawing exchange between four of Sri Lanka’s most important contemporary artists.
The book relates back to the creation of four drawings that were simultaneously drawn in May
2005 and charts the exchange of responses that ensued between the four artists in response
and as a consequence to the initial four drawings. In common with the technique of the
Exquisite Corpse used to great effect by the Surrealists, The One Year Drawing Project
belies similar outcomes of subversion and fraught association when viewed against the
context of the current political climate in Sri Lanka – where all four artists live and work. A
timeline of events, exchanged between the artists, provides a subtext to the volume of 208
drawings brought together in the book.
NOTES to Editors
About Raking Leaves
To achieve its aims Raking Leaves works with a distinguished, international advisory board
that provides expertise and support towards its publishing program and ongoing
development:
Channa Daswatte – Architect, Sri Lanka
Dr Charles Merewether – Writer, Curator and Deputy Director, Cultural District, Abu Dhabi
Suhanya Raffel – Head of Asia Pacific Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Jane Rolo – Director and co-founder of Book Works, London
Sally Tallant – Head of Education and Public Programming, Serpentine Gallery, London
Raking Leaves is a not-for-profit organisation. In 2008 the organisation was invited to become
one of 33 new organisations to receive regular funding from the Arts Council of England. In
addition to financial support from the Arts Council England, each project is also accompanied
by a specially commissioned limited edition that provides financial support towards each
artist’s project and the imprint’s ongoing publishing activity.
About Sharmini Pereira
Sharmini Pereira is the director and founder of Raking Leaves, a not-for-profit independent
publishing organisation that commissions and publishes book projects with international
artists. In 2006 she co-curated the first Singapore Biennale. She has worked internationally
for over ten years, as an independent curator, writer, editor and curatorial consultant with
organisations that include the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; the Imperial War Museum,
London; The Royal Academy, London; The Japan Foundation, Japan; Albion, London; the
Hayward Gallery, London and the British Council, Sri Lanka. She is a Trustee for Book
Works, London and an academic advisor for the Asia Art Archive (AAA), Hong Kong.
ENDS
For further information and images please contact Sharmini Pereira:
sharmini@rakingleaves.org
T: +44 (0)7712 585069