Virginia Woolf Society Turkey is hosting another free online Woolf seminar, and this one features a talk by Assoc. Prof. F. Zeynep Bilge of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University on “Woolfian Soundscapes: Noises, Voices, and Music in Virginia Woolf’s Novels.”
What: In this Woolf seminar, Bilge will discuss the structural relationship between Woolf’s writing and musical forms. Who: Bilge’s scholarly pursuits span the domains of literature and music, adaptation studies, and narratology. She pursued her early studies in voice at Istanbul University School of Music (1991-1994) and later obtained her B.A. (1999) and M.A. degrees (2001) in English Language and Literature from Istanbul University. In 2008, she earned her Ph.D with a dissertation focusing on the communicative function of songs in Shakespeare’s tragedies. As a visiting scholar at Cardiff University in 2012, she conducted research on the opera adaptations of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Currently, she is engrossed in the composition of a scholarly monograph centered on opera adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays.
When: Friday, May 24, 7-9 p.m. Turkey time and 12 -2 p.m. EST. Cost: Free Registration:Online
Virginia Woolf’s numerous experiences with illness led her to write the essay On Being Ill, published in 1930 by the Hogarth Press. Inspired by this work and the coronavirus, Norwegian typesetter Ane Thon Knutsen has turned her spontaneous homage to the essay into book form.
Working from her private letterpress studio at home, Ane started a third. She printed one sentence from “On Being Ill” on one sheet of paper every day. Her project ran from March 23 to Aug. 29, 2020, and she shared those pages on Instagram. She also shared her thoughts about the project with Blogging Woolf.
Through this process, she shaped a diary in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and allowed for research on pandemics by creating an artist book.
The book merges Woolf’s sentences with with my reflections on covid, pandemics, isolation, escaping reality through literature, waiting, time, art, love, protests, feminism, typesetting, printing, family, small stuff, big stuff. – Ane
The publication also contains reflections on teaching during the pandemic in the spring of 2021, along with insights and works by master’s students in graphic design and illustration at The Oslo National Academy of The Arts, using Woolf’s essay as a mirror for their own pandemic experiences.
The digital book edition
With an introduction by Mark Hussey, the book is available as a digital book edition of 150. It is now available through several independent bookshops, which are handling distribution. They include the following:
The publication is supported with research funds from The Oslo National Academy of The Arts. Graphic design was done by Tiril Haug Johne and Victoria Meyer.
Ane expresses special thanks to the Oslo National Academy of the Arts Class of 2022: Araiz Mesanza, Embla Sunde Myrva, Kristine Lie Øverland Emil Holmberg Lewe, Ruth Emilie Rustad, Nicolo Groenier, her former professor Alan Mackenzie-Robinson, former president of the International Virginia Woolf Society Dr. Benjamin Hagen, the Woolf community, her husband Truls and her son Pil.
Ane Thon Knutsen in her home printshop with a volume of On Being Ill, her pandemic project originally shared on Instagram.
About Ane Thon Knutsen
Ane is internationally known for her letterpress-focused installations and artists’ books. The associate professor of graphic design at the Oslo Academy of the Arts has won numerous awards for her work. She owns and works from her private letterpress studio in Oslo.
Ane Thon Knutsen at her exhibition “Printed Works: Adaptations of Virginia Woolf” at the 32nd Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf at Florida Gulf Coast University, Jun3 8-11, 2023.
In “Printed Works,” the self-taught typesetter who has exhibited other letterpress projects and installations related to Woolf, adapted a selection of Virginia Woolf’s self-published short stories. The exhibit focused on Woolf’s poetic short stories “Blue” and “Green.” The printed pages were collected and are being stored in book form in FGCU Bradshaw Library’s Archives and Special Collections.
More coming up
In addition, Ane will display another installation, Woolf’s “Kew Gardens,” May 16 – June 11 for the 33rd International Virginia Woolf Conference. The adaptation of Woolf’s short story consists of 1,514 letterpress-printed sheets of kozo.
According to Ane, it is an “organic book allowing you to walk through the pages, like insects in a flowerbed.”
In 1920 Virginia Woolf’s sister Vanessa Bell painted “Mrs Dalloway’s Party,” a painting that quickly became shrouded in mystery.
Exhibited briefly in 1922, the highly praised painting disappeared until British art dealer Anthony d’Offay offered it in 1983 from the estate of Virginia Woolf. It then vanished for more than 60 years until it turned up in a sale of items from Woolf’s estate.
Questions
Questions about the painting are many. If it was a gift to Virginia, why did she hide it away? Vanessa Bell paintings were usually still lives, but this one clearly depicts a narrative. What is the story she wanted to show? Are the figures real people? If so who are they?
The preliminary title of Virginia Woolf’s most famous novel, Mrs Dalloway, published five years later, was The Party, so was there a connection between painting and novel?
Howard Ginsberg has offered an intriguing explanation for these unanswered questions in his latest play, “The Mysterious Gift to Virginia Woolf.”
Watch the free recording of an online reading of this play on YouTube.
More about the painting
For more background on the painting, listen to a 2023 27-minute podcast “Mrs. Dalloway’s Party,” that features Dr. Karina Jakubowicz. In it, she speaks with Ginsberg, the painting’s owner.
The Charleston Trust has raised £20,000 of the £60,000 it needs to help save “Lessons in the Orchard,” from sale at auction.
“Lessons in the Orchard” (1917) by Duncan Grant. (C) The Charleston Trust
Duncan Grant’s 1917 painting is considered one of the most important paintings of early life at Charleston, as Grant painted it the summer after he and Vanessa Bell first arrived at the Sussex home in 1916. It was also one of Vanessa Bell’s favorite paintings and has hung by her bedside since that time.
According to Charleston, “The much loved painting serves as a poignant reflection of Grant’s experiences as a conscientious objector during the First World War, depicting a scene of domestic tranquillity amidst the chaos of the era. The painting captures a different kind of family structure, offering a lens into themes of social privilege and chosen kinship that have always been present here at Charleston.”
The family who has loaned Charleston the painting since the 1980s has given Charleston the opportunity to secure its permanent place within its collection.
With the support of the Trustees of the ArtFund, Charleston has secured a grant of £40,000 towards the purchase price. However, it must raise a further £60,000 to ensure that “Lessons in the Orchard” remains in the care of Charleston’s collections team and is returned to public display for generations to enjoy.
What: Talk on “Everything You Think You Know about the Dreadnought Hoax Is Wrong“
Date: Wednesday, May 15 Time: 5:30 p.m. BST Where: Online Cost: £6 Sponsor: Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain Audience: VWSGB members only. Not a member? Join here. For more information: Contact onlinevwsgb@gmail.com
About the book — and the talk
Journalists, memoirists and others have been getting the 1910 Dreadnought hoax wrong for more than a century. Even Virginia Woolf’s 1940 talk about the hoax is rife with inaccuracies, exaggerations and misrepresentations.
The Girl Prince, published by Hurst, takes a deep dive into the famous prank, exploring the often-overlooked diversity of Virginia Woolf’s world and setting the record straight on a practical joke that has been misunderstood for 100 years.
About the author
Danell Jones is a writer and scholar with a PhD in literature from Columbia University. She is the author of The Virginia Woolf Writers Workshop; the poetry collection Desert Elegy; and An African in Imperial London: The Indomitable Life of A.B.C. Merriman-Labor, which won the High Plains Book Award for Nonfiction.
