ma·quette|\ ma-ˈket \:
a usually small preliminary model (as of a sculpture or a building)
This is a taste of what our brave first group of contributing artists came up with!
Faride Mereb is an award-winning book designer, researcher, and educator currently based in New York City. She originally hails from Venezuela and brings a poetic and interesting visual and tactile aesthetic to everything she creates. Faride recently launched a brick-and-mortar studio for her publishing venture, Letra Muerta, in Brooklyn, NY. She offers consultations, a variety of printing services, and contract book design work.
The images Faride contributed to this project are part of a larger research project about Karmele Leizaola, the first woman to work as a graphic designer in Venezuela. See the link above and social media links here for more information about Faride and her work!
Faride Mereb on: INSTAGRAM . SHOP LETRA MUERTA . TWITTER
It absolutely must be acknowledged that Faride’s contributions to Dada Duende Record Club’s inaugural issue were immeasurable. Faride designed the beautiful cover, using fellow artist Jim Henkel’s photograph for inspiration, and she worked closely with Hannah to guide her with the design and layout of the inside of the book. Faride is passionate about book design (see her cover design class at Domestika.org!) and she is available for hire to design or consult on book design. She is a consummate pro and a pleasure to work with, and we here at Dada Duende are grateful to know her!
Nicole Small is an artist and photographer based in Montreal, specializing in fine art photography and the art of self-portraiture. She works with vintage cameras in a variety of formats, creating traditional and non-traditional photographic works of art.
Nicole is fascinated by creating instant, bold, and direct visual connections with people, places, and things of divine interest, capturing real, raw, and honest emotion from an up-close and personal perspective. In her mind, this is the best means to bear witness to an honest reality. Self-portraiture plays an important role in her creative world, which not only allows limitless freedom of expression, but has opened her mind to fearlessness and an acceptance of being seen as vulnerable rather than the societal norm of “manipulated to perfection.”
An exploration of the unusual and unexpected is the generator behind her work, using historical photographic techniques alongside the dimensions of light and stillness in time.
B+C is an interdisciplinary, collaborative artist duo consisting of Raina Belleau and Caleb Churchill. Their research-based projects examine the relationships and boundaries between history and legend, fact and fiction, science and speculation. The duo allows their concepts and ideas to dictate the mediums they work in, leading to experimentation in an ever-expanding body of projects and passions.
For their contribution to Dada Duende Record Club, they interpreted the prompt “Maquette” as a process of iteration and resolution. In the case of their four still-lives, they took the concept of resolution literally. By creating images of handmade, paper cut outs, painted clay, found plastic fruits and fresh produce, the photographs progress from the least amount of visual information, flat color and simplified forms, to the most information, the actual objects. Through this series, the duo experiments with the viewersʼ perception of the images they encounter.
Belleau + Churchill live and work on Chickasaw land (Memphis, TN) with their two dogs.
Belleau + Churchill on: INSTAGRAM . Vimeo . GRIN . and more!
James Henkel received his MFA in photography in 1974 and taught at
the Penland School of Craft for two years before joining the faculty of the Department of Art, at the University of Minnesota in 1976 where he is Professor Emeritus. He lives and works in Penland and Asheville NC.
These photographs are made in the spirit of invention and are to be understood as possible objects.
James Henkel on: INSTAGRAM . ENIGMA Magazine . LIGHT WORK
Born in Manhattan, Kansas in 1978, Tara started making art in 4th grade. She began college at age 16, briefly studied writing at Kansas State University before moving to Joensuu, Finland, then Atlanta, GA, and eventually New York City in September 2001. There, she worked at New York University and received a degree in 2004. Tara directed several documentary films from 2004-2012, with screenings at SXSW and Lincoln Center, and broadcasts on PBS and the Documentary Channel. In time, her artistic practice shifted to still photography. Her work has been exhibited at Kunst Haus Wien, Museum Hundertwasser, Vienna, Austria.
Tara is the author of 6 photo books since 2013, including 2018's critically acclaimed Too Tired for Sunshine, which led to her founding of the Too Tired Project, a non-profit arts organization advancing mental health advocacy through photography. She recently wrapped up work on a new photo book, Book of Sons, to be published by Lecturis Press (Amsterdam) in 2023. Tara is currently working in the medium of AI art; finding inspiration from animals, pickleball, nature, and day-to-day life with her family. She lives and works off-grid in rural Vermont.
Tara Wray on: INSTAGRAM . NPR . Machine Art Wray
Hannah Lynch has worked in Minneapolis, Minnesota as a photographer for over 20 years, a career that includes fine art, portraiture, editorial work, and even a brief stint shooting brain surgeries for a health care company where she worked as a staff photographer. She is passionate about photography as an art form, and in recent years has been focussed on documenting her experience as a mom, her interest in and concern for urban wildlife (especially crows!), cyanotype printing, and using AI technology to generate pictures that otherwise only live in her head.
The images presented here are a loving homage to author Bruno Schulz, quoted from one of the short stories in his book “Street of Crocodiles”. They are meant to accompany the songs, “Polda” and “Pauline”, that were contributed by The Faint Praise Orchestra.
Diane Martini
Diane Martini lives and works in Minneapolis, MN. Her poems have been featured in The Gettysburg Review (2022 Best New Poet nominee), Pembroke Magazine (2022 Pushcart nominee), Spillway, Coffin Bell, Not Very Quiet, 45th Parallel, Poetry City USA, Four Chambers Press, The Scene & Heard Journal, and others. In addition to poetry, she is working on various essays on beauty and nostalgia. Diane has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Minnesota; and an executive MBA from the University of St. Thomas.
Diane Martini on: INSTAGRAM . MEDIUM . NOT VERY QUIET
The Faint Praise Orchestra is the dada Duende Record Club house band. Born of necessity to create music for “Maquette”, but sticking around because of how great we think we are. You can expect future cameos from FPO backing guest musical artists and making special RSD lathe-cut record releases, which we will use to further spread the word about the dada Duende Record Club. The two songs for this edition of the set, “Polda” and “Pauline”, were written by Chris Lynch.
The members so far:
Luca Gunther: Blips & Bloops
Chris Lynch: Piano, Celeste, Mellotron
Martha Mulcahy: Viola
Steve Price: Bass & Production Wizardry