Pleats
Pleats is a platform and catalyst for research-led and collaborative print projects, that engage with archival research and practices, feminist histories and overlooked figures.
Operating as an extension of the artistic work and research of its founder Kate Morrell, Pleats continues a commitment to relationships between archaeological and artistic practices. Recently published book works have been developed in response to, and in collaboration with, notable UK collections centered on archaeology and geology; including the Jacquetta Hawkes Archive (Special Collections, University of Bradford); The Hamer Mineral Collection (Kendal Museum) and The Fell and Rock Climbing Club of the English Lake District archive (Armitt Museum and Library).
Departing from many fluid concerns, Pleats is interested in the following areas of contested research: archives, material cultures, the archaeological record and rural landscapes.
Edition of 200
Paperback, 28pp., 148 x 210mm
2-colour litho (black + metallic purple)
Museum Pictorial is a series of publications looking at how colonial archives and collections can be critically examined and redefined through the lens of digitality. Drawing attention to mass digitisation projects concerning colonial artefacts, the series balances the promise of greater accessibility and preservation with questions concerning ownership, representation, and knowledge extraction. Each publication is a new collaboration with an artist, and engages with museum digital initiatives such as: digital restitution, virtual reunification, digital collaboration and replicas.
Edition of 50, numbered
MP3, 15mins 46secs, English spoken
Audio file supplied via QR code
Set of three printed cards looped onto a carabiner
Alpine Spoilers assembles quotes from the last paragraphs of over one hundred mountaineering memoirs. The books are first-hand accounts of journeys in The English Lakes, The Alps, The Himalayas and further afield, from the Victorian era to the present day. The collection is part of the archive of The Fell & Rock Climbing Club of the English Lake District, held at The Armitt Museum & Library in Cumbria.
Alpine Spoilers presents the mountainous landscape shaped by male imaginary. In the closing pages the Alpinist composes a poignant, poetic finale. The author weighs the tensions between pleasure and power versus risk, the pull of the sublime, and the real possible outcomes of pain and death.
The first printing of Alpine Spoilers was published in 2012 (currently out-of-print). This new 2022 audio work was conceived in response to the challenges of making and presenting publications in post-covid-19 conditions, to expand strategies for disseminating work in the absence of book fairs, travel restrictions and testing new online solutions facilitating remote access to artworks.
Edition of 200
88pp., 210 x 260mm
1 colour spot printing (blue), coil bound with die-cut polycarbonate cover
Co-publishers: Lodret Vandret (DK) and Pleats (UK)
‘THE WORK OF THE HAND AND THE MIND’ is in-part a typeface specimen, a visual poetry exercise and a drawing manual. It presents two variations of a display typeface: CIRC, developed using a technical drawing stencil. This exercise in hand-drawn type connects the poetic and typographic through elliptical, fragmented texts.
‘THE WORK OF THE HAND...' formed from the artist’s research within the photographic 'archive' and business records at Eks Skolens Trykkeri (Ex School Printing), a worker-run print co-operative in Copenhagen. Eks Skolens was founded in the late 1960s as an experimental art school and exists in the same building today, operating now as a commercial offset printer – ‘THE WORK OF THE HAND...' is printed on their litho press. The book joins constellations of research touching upon: the acceleration and resistance of late 20th century digital technologies, primitive word processors (IBM), the divisions of time and labour and of collective working.
The die-cut cover functions as a drawing stencil and readers are invited to put CIRC into use – duplication and dissemination are encouraged. CIRC uses Mudejar display type by Jean Larcher as a skeleton for the alphabet, adapted and reworked with a drawing stencil and the addition of glyphs.
Edition of 200
88pp., 210 x 260mm
1 colour spot printing (blue), coil bound with die-cut polycarbonate cover
Co-publishers: Lodret Vandret (DK) and Pleats (UK)