Visual Diary D 19 (1987ff.)

Black quarto-size ‘Collins’ brand notebook, opening pages dated Jan.1987

Arkley archive

A detailed diary covering the period from 1987 to c.1991, combining source material, notes, ideas and sketches (a number of these are reproduced and/or discussed in the comments on Arkley’s so-called ‘virtual oeuvre’ in Carnival ch.4).

Most of the entries date from 1987 and soon after, with a few subsequent additions. Significant contents include:

  • opening page (dated 1.1.87: reproduced in Carnival Fig.4.38) containing furniture designs, with further similar material on pages following
  • notes for Arkley’s 1987 Sydney exhibition, and his ‘Casual Works’ show 1988
  • a bathroom source image (see comments in Carnival 127)
  • chair and furniture designs, including plans to make replicas of examples by Gerrit Rietveld and Scott Burton: see now Carnival 131, including a reproduction of a typical page from this diary (Fig.4.38)
  • an idea for a ‘Couples’ exhibition (detail reproduced in Carnival Fig.4.46)
  • (reproduced here) notes on textures, and a sketch for a work based on the Fats Domino song ‘Walking’ – box-on-legs composition used for Happenstance (1987) and several related works on paper
  • Marionette scheme (reproduced and discussed in Carnival 137 and Fig.4.48)
  • an idea for a ‘swing painting’
  • an idea for a tall house painting entitled ‘Source of Pride’ (entry reproduced and discussed in Carnival 127 and Fig.4.29)