Edwin Aitken is currently working on a new artists book for floating world. Fellow Floating World Artist Glenn Holman has written an essay to accompany the work which is reproduced below along with one of the images that will apear in the completed work. More information about this publication will be avalable soon.

Some Thoughts on the work of Edwin Aitken:

A line that becomes an area of tone that becomes an eye. Which in turn mutates into the supraorbital process, that becomes an ear, calligraphic markings reminiscent of graffiti or language becomes the zygomatic bone that becomes a mouth. Language is an inadequate medium to describe a work by Edwin Aitken. Like all the best art, these are drawings that have to be experienced. These ‘Heads’ as Aitken calls them are not portraits of a specific person, they are however individuals, composite beings created through the process of their making from anatomical details and facial features that Aitken finds visually interesting or that suit his creative intentions. As such, these drawings are not of someone, but they could be anyone. The dense layering and marking and re-working of these drawings is created over an extended period of time, beyond this however these are drawings about time and above all the experience of time. We all live in time and within the brief duration of our existence we grow and change through our experience of being alive and these experiences mark us and change us most clearly on the face. We carry the history of our lives in the set of our features and the lines that mark the surface of our skin, like these drawings, we are not one person, but an amalgam of all the people we have been. Within these drawings it is as if Aitken is attempting to simultaneously draw out both these multiply selves and to compress the duration of a human life into a single image. The layering of marks and multiple viewpoints hint at an individual, who is simultaneously young and old, joyful and sad, alive and if not dead, clearly aware of their mortality. There is nothing nilhistic in Aitken’s work however, instead these are images of great compassion and humanity. The faces that gaze out at us from the picture surface are like the ghosts of ourselves, they speak of their own experience, of being created, of being drawn into life through the work of a consummate draftsman. They speak to us also of our own experience of being alive and of existing in time, our own hopes and fears, loves and losses, the mutability of our own lives, the dense layering’s of our own experiences and memories, our own very real mortality. When we gaze at these works, we do not see someone else, we see ourselves.

Glenn Holman
November 2011

Edwin Aitken and Simon Burton, two of the very first Floating World contributors, are showing new paintings in a group ...   more »

TOKYO-BELFAST-TOKYO
Contemporary Prints + Drawings by Japanese Artist
Hidehiko Ishibashi


Tokyo based Visual Artist Hide Ishibashi completed a B.A. in Combined Studies at University of Ulster in 1994 and an M.A. in Fine Art at Manchester Metropolitan University in 1995.

He has exhibited in Belfast, London and Tokyo in the past and had been mostly living in Tokyo, in the recent ten years. Hide is also a member of Floating World Books that has connections in Sligo, London and Fermanagh.

The main concern in his art works related to a sense of belonging to places in where people find their identity in the contemporary world. Transport system has greatly improved in the 20th Century that moves millions of people everyday. Ishibashi is most intrigued by the rapid changes in our lifestyles, which is now resulting in dramatic transformations of societies in all over the world.

His recent activities include not only making art but extends to many art related events and places. In 2008, he was the director of Northern Ireland Film Festival 2008 at Eurospace cinema in Tokyo.

His recent show ‘National Scandal’ was an exhibition themed to examine current Japanese media with critical eyes.

Hide Ishibashi will exhibit his prints and drawings at The Higher Bridges Gallery in The Clinton Centre Enniskillen opening night is on Friday 4th March at 8pm and runs to the 3rd April 2011

Here is an excerpt from the essay by Glenn Holman, for the full PDF please e-mail info@floatingworldbooks.com

"Still, it gives ...   more »

The new artists book by Glenn Holman, to be launched to accompany the opening of The Andy Parsons project, will ...   more »

The show closes on Sunday, so if you haven't seen it yet time is running short!   more »

Floating World has created two site specific installations at Fermanagh Museum. The installations display work by members of the public alongside works by Floating World artists. In the run up to the show Andy Parsons has been working with members of the public to make artists books onsite at the museum, and at the Book House in Cavan. This part of the project aimed to provide everyone with a voice to relate ideas, share images, thoughts, insights and memories. The projects aim was to involve young and old alike, and find ways for them to communicate through the medium that are not determined by pre-existing skills or levels of technological know how.

The works are displayed in two areas. In the main part of the Museum, Floating World has partly repopulated three of the display cases with Artists books, these display cases also display objects from the Museums collection. Amongst the works occupying the cases are new works by Sarah Carne, who has created a number of books based on the I-Spy Series. The books mimic the originals in style but replace the familiar content with new narratives. The idea of re-framing something that already exists, to change and create a new thought for it, is the common denominator for both the books and the method of display.

Floating World has also created an installation in the 19th Century Powder Magazine. The installation takes its inspiration from two historical figures in the courtyard, which are similar to the life size cut-out figures that you stick your head through at the seaside. The Magazine will be full of life size figures holding aloft books for visitor to pick up and flick through, creating a dramatic and visually arresting backdrop to the books.

Miniature Books by: Lisa Lasko


"The combination of old books with their muted colors and time-aged pages creates a sense ...   more »

Celia Richard, an artist working in Cavan, has produced two books for the upcoming Floating World show at Fermanagh Museum, ...   more »

As part of the up coming Floating World project at Fermanagh County Museum, we will be installing a series of ...   more »

Floating World at Fermanagh County Museum, Enniskillen

29 September until 31 October 2010

In October Floating World will be creating ...   more »

Some of the work by participants of the recent workshops at the Book House is on show in the upstairs ...   more »

Workshops in the Book House Cavan
Floating World will be doing book making workshops in the Book House in Cavan. The dates and times are Tuesday the 17th for Artists and Thursday the 19th and 26th for the public. Times are 11-3 pm. The workshops are free and there is no need to bring any materials. Mail info@floatingworldbooks.com for more info.

Workshops in Enniskillen Castle Museum
Also in the run up to the Floating World show at Enniskillen Castle Museum we are staging workshops at the museum throughout August;
Sunday 1 August 2.00pm – 4.30pm Drop-in workshop, Saturday 7 Aug 2.00pm – 4.30pm Drop-in workshop, Sunday 8 Aug 2.00pm – 4.30pm Drop-in workshop, Saturday 14 Aug 2.00pm – 4.30pm Drop-in workshop, Sunday 15 Aug 2.00pm – 4.30pm Drop-in workshop, Saturday 21 Aug 2.00pm – 4.30pm Drop-in workshop, Sunday 22 Aug 2.00pm – 4.30pm Drop-in workshop, Saturday 28 Aug 2.00pm – 4.30pm Drop-in workshop, Sunday 29 Aug 2.00pm – 4.30pm Drop-in workshop, Monday 30 Aug 2.00pm – 4.40pm, Family Day workshop.

Cavan Youthreach have been working on a giant concertina book for the official launch of the book house.

The book ...   more »

Here's a picture of the first room on the top floor of the house with books by Bailieborough NS students alongside works by Floating World artists. The books vary in their approaches from simple concertina designs to quarter bound pieces. The theme that links them is our relationship to the past, the young people looked into their family histories and talked to people from older generations. The material they gathered was placed alongside contemporary images and the books often use seemingly humble objects to weave stories that touch on profound changes in society.

In the next room is the completed installation of work by Belturbet scouts. The work uses motifs from the scouts manual, knots and other themes related to being outdoors and to the idea of adapting to nature. The placing of the piece indoors, and its suspension from the ceiling seem to touch on the theme of contemporary society and it unease with and separation from nature. The tent itself has a peculiar beauty to it, with the colours and textures of the fabrics and sewing combining to create a dense visual pattern.

The builders have finished -and a great job they have done too - and the sign on the gable is ...   more »

Work is nearly complete on the outside, and, more importantly, the inside of the house. The ceilings are in and the walls are pristine white, the space has the look of a really smart gallery. Work is due to finish very soon so watch this space....

In the run up to the opening of the Book House, Floating World has been working with two groups in County Cavan producing artists books that will be shown in the opening exhibition.

At Bailieborough Community School a group of students took as their starting point the relationship between their generation and that of their grandparents. The results are a wide range of books which have a fascinating stories about lives and how they intersect with the broadest currents of history. The books are a combination of the anarchic and meticulous and use a wide range of techniques.

In Belturbet the Beltubet Scouts have been developing a project that aims to combine ideas about the outdoors and sustainability, with ideas about scale and portability relating to the artists book medium.
The image is of work in progress on a very large artists book. The scouts are sewing different images onto the outside of the structure so that it becomes a three dimensional book. When finished it will be packed away into two small boxes ready to be moved about reassembled, 'read' and moved on again.

The Book House

Work is near completion on transforming the derelict house in Bullock Lane, Cavan, Republic of Ireland into a dynamic venue for the creation and display of contemporary Art.
Builders are currently on site, shaping the building into a space where artists can work and share their ideas with each other and with the public.

As a way of introducing the new role for the house Cavan Arts Office has invited Andy Parsons of Floating World Artists Books to undertake a short residency in the building in Summer 2010 . Andy will be inviting local artists as well as members of the public to come in and make their own Artists Books. These works can be as simple as a printed, folded sheet of paper, or they can be more elaborate works, with complex bindings and hand printed illustrations.

The Bullock Lane house will become The Book House, a temporary publishing house, functioning as a public art project and as a completely new approach to book art. The projects central aim is to explore new ways of democratising the production and dissemination of art. In this sense it follows on from previous Floating World projects, such as Reading Room at Sligo Art Gallery, which in June 09 transformed the gallery space into a reading and making areas complete with a sofa and bookshelves and materials and tools for the public to make their own work.

In the run up to the opening of the building Andy will be doing talks and workshops about Artists Books in different parts of the County and will run projects with different groups. The resulting works along with the work produced in The Book House when it opens will be shown in an exhibition at the end of the residency, and toured to different venues thereafter.

Welcome to Floating World Projects.
This is the new blog set up to track the various projects being planned by Floating World in Ireland, London, Tokyo and beyond.
We have had a number of shows over the past few years. Our works have been shown on an adapted tourist information stand in the Town Hall of Enniskillen and been collected by the Tate. This mixture of approaches and contexts is what we cherish and want to explore more over the coming months and years.

This weekend is the final opportunity to check out the survey show of our work to dtae at S-I-B Contemporary Art Tokyo (www.s-i-b.net ) The show has been a big hit and we really appreciate the supprot of the gallery on staging it.