Julie Cockburn - Stickybeak

Julie Cockburn
Stickybeak

Published by Chose Commune, 2019
Size: 21 x 30 cm
88 Pages
Hardcover
Languages: French, English
ISBN: 979-10-96383-14-6

“Stickybeak” is Julie Cockburn’s first in-depth monograph.
The publication coincides with the solo exhibition “Telling it slant” at Flowers Gallery in London, UK (12 September-2 November 2019)

"We're all curious to some degree. Most of my fictional heroes and heroines spend their time investigating, or at least meddling in, other people's business: Miss Marple, Lieutenant Columbo, Margo Leadbetter. There are even stories of espionage in my recent family history. Someone registered on social media always does some research—prying is human nature.

The works in this book were created over a period of twelve years; some are unique experiments, others are part of ongoing series that I complete over time. Each creation began with the quest for the perfect image, for which I imposed vaguely demanding parameters on myself. I selected written postcards, old photographs, damaged bookplates, and some of my own childhood drawings. Each of these finds has a different story to tell, unknown or forgotten. Through my actions, these once silent, superfluous, and orphaned objects find a living heart.

I see this book as a continuation of that approach. The editors drew on the hundreds of images in my archive in the same way I pored over the pages of online sales sites or browsed the chaotic stalls of flea markets. Here, it sheds light on my assiduous work of hand embroidery and intricate collages, the succession of images evoking a story of humor and tenderness. We will all read it differently, pausing on the elements that speak to us most, in the language that suits us best. But overall, this reduced selection, a sort of chosen exquisite corpse, explores how we see ourselves, how we see others, and the multi-layered ambiguity that is life."

- Julie Cockburn