CPF and ArToll

C P F is an ongoing collaboration project by english artist and good friend Rachael Elwell and me.

it began in january 2006 when we met on a residency at ArToll kunst labor in bedburg-hau, germany. since that time we have been engaging in an ongoing mail art project that investigates the way in which artists sketchbooks are used as a communication and thinking tool for an artist to record thoughts, observations and memories. we send sketchbooks back and forth between our home towns of xanten germany and salford england. the books are used as a portable documentary and message carrier tool to store information, ideas and knowledge, visually and written, between the two locations.

for our first collaborative exhibition, we had been invited to take part in the wanderwort exhibition at museum CODA in apeldoorn, NL. we created a book together called "88 pages between salford and xanten".

now CPF is back with new sketchbooks. after a short break we started to work in new books again and sending them regularly between our home towns: this book has a theme which is a secret until rachael recives it, so i only can show its outside now. maybe she will show its inside on her livejournal in the beginning of december !? anyway, check her blog, she´s doing interesting things!

i was at artoll today, because there was the finissage of the project "artoll ruft die berge" which means "artoll is calling the mountains". here are some impressions:



"making things complicated is easy. achieving simplicity is tough."
-bruno munari-