Clothespin Tarot Artist Book, 2007
Mixed media, laser jet printing
Slipcase: 10 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches
Enclosed works: various dimensions.
Clothespin Tarot is published by the artist in 2007 in a limited edition of 50, based on the Clothespin Tarot Drawings.
Excerpt from the Catalogue:
MULTIPLE, LIMITED, UNIQUE- SELECTIONS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION OF THE CENTER FROM THE BOOK ARTS, 2011
”In Clothespin Tarot and The Reading Catya Plate appropriates the concept of the Tarot as a mystical fortune telling game to address the feminine and question the nature of existence through the accessibility of play. The handmade quality of The Clothespin Tarot emphasizes the process used to make it and the interactive nature of the tarot and the book. Each card within the tarot delivers “serio-comic advice, colored by wordplay, double entendres and idiomatic expressions”. The clothespin freaks , a series of wacky characters invented by the artist and centered on the domestic — buttons, thimbles, hatpins,—create non-linear narratives based on fairy tales, real life and feminist critique. The Reading made with stop motion techniques animates the clothespin freaks, one of whom takes on the role of the reader guiding the Puppet (who was transformed from a human) through the selection of 7 Clothespin tarot cards: Hermit, Devil, Queen of Thimbles, King of Darners, Page of Buttons, World and Page of Hatpins. Integrating the human figure within a whimsical tale using claymation and other animated materials, viewers meander through Plate’s childlike structure only to be confronted with grown-up philosophical questions of knowledge and existence”.
—Karina Skvisrky , Entry Writer