Katya Reka

Wanderlust.

admin — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 22:54:57 +0000

MFA Thesis Show 2011
Six handmade scroll books, digital video projection and an iPad publication.a book is a road walked with an author

A book is a room where readers or authors can meet. A book is also a journey of making, a road of self-expression and a way to reconcile inner view of the world with the outward existence. Books are precious, useless, obscene, they are mystical, ritual and temporary — anything we want them to be. Books are the best solution for our memory loss and the obsession with what if scenarios.

What if Pablo Neruda and Masanobu Fukuoka met each other. A zealous poet/politician with a gift for lusty language and an anti-government revolutionary farmer/nihilist. Both of them envisioned change. Both of them lived out their beliefs. It would be interesting to observe their conversation.

wanderlust explores two most important journeys a man can embark on — loving and growing. It is an imaginary dialogue between Pablo Neruda and Masanobu Fukuoka, where one man speaks of his journey of love for a woman and other speaks of love for the earth. It is a dialogue between the body and the nature. My work is about journey. About going somewhere and yet never getting there.

It is about imagining, dreaming and making words visible.

School of Fine Arts Gallery, Bloomington, IN

Burst Book.

admin — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 05:09:58 +0000

Accordion book.
Watercolor on handmade flax paper.

Type Stories.

admin — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:14:35 +0000

Playing with type history.

Hide Book.

admin — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 05:16:07 +0000

Handmade felt with thread inclusions.
Mulberry paper, typewritten text, transfer, watercolor.

Neckbook.

admin — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 00:00:12 +0000

Handmade flax paper, typewriter, wire, thread.

Divchyna Typeface.

admin — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 04:17:38 +0000

Cyrillic typeface inspired by Ukrainian embroidery. Digital and handmade. Project includes digital typeface with uppercase characters, numbers and ornaments, embroidered letters based on the digital grid design, clamshell box and a book with examples of typeface in use.

Hereafter Therefore.

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:29:47 +0000

A set of 2 books.
Created as a part of Book Arts Fellowship Program at Minnesota Center for Book Arts. Each book contains 12 linocut illustration and 12 handwritten poems.Together, books represent day and night, and 24 hours of waiting. Books explores the themes of love, distance, longing and memory. Edition of 15. Completed in 2008.

Play Me. A Board Game for Two.

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 07:21:20 +0000

A combat for two.
Interactive board game for couples. Includes board, cards, rules brochure and package.

Do Not Hump.

admin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 01:34:04 +0000

Letterpress poster.
Printed at Hamilton Museum of Wood Type.

Woodpecker Husband.

admin — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 00:51:14 +0000

Poster. Inspired by a miniature book found at the Lilly Library of Rare Books.

The Woodpecker Husband
Kitemaug Press 1967

Once upon a time there was a handsome red-headed brave who fell in love with a beautiful maiden. They were married.

Later, on a very cold day, the man told his wife he was going to the forest to cut wood to keep their tepee hot. The wife stayed home.

At noon she cooked him a good dinner, but he failed to come home. She went to the forest to seek him and listened to hear his chopping.

Unable to find him she started home. On her way she saw a big red-headed bird pecking as hard as he could all around a tree.

Later that evening her husband came home and sat down by the fire.
“I have a headache I chopped too hard.”
His wife told him about the bird she had seen.
“That was I, ” he said.
The girl had married a woodpecker.