Philadelphia: Thomas Parker Williams, 2023. A unique four-section artist's book by noted book artist and composer Thomas Parker Williams, signed and dated by him on each of the separate panels comprising the work. Williams began creating artists' books in 1998 while also painting. As of 2009 he has limited his art practice exclusively to artists' books. He often creates videos and composes music to accompany his books that may be found on his website (www.thomasparkerwilliams.com). Books by Williams or the Luminice Press imprint under which he and his wife Mary Agnes Williams issue books, may be found in 88 public collections around the country including the Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. and the National Gallery of Art.
This work is part of Williams's WORDLESS series- Painted and Drawn Narratives that are unique books with many different structures that contain a wordless narrative executed in multiple media. Transcriptions is a subset of the Wordless – Painted and Drawn Narratives series. Prime Number Meters are part of the Transcriptions series. All artwork, music composition, recording and performance (all instruments) by Thomas Parker Williams. The musical compositions are available through his website (thomasparkerwilliams.com). This fascinating and complex work is based on experimental original music compositions using four prime numbers, 3, 5, 7 and 11, as the upper number of the time signature of an eight-beat measure. These time signatures, 3/8, 5/8, 7/8 and 11/8, result in music with a very different feeling than the 4/4 rhythm commonly used. All rhythms in Prime Number Meters are programmed to run at a tempo of 200 beats per minute.
The visual works of three panels for each section are literal transcriptions of the music. The color panels on the front of each set convey the mood created by the music, and are accurate in horizontal distance to the tempo. The reverse side of the panels illustrate the programmed rhythm sections in music notation. The covers, resembling LP covers, illustrate an enlarged section of the color panels. Each of the time signatures is shown in a separate section of drawings and panels, each housed in a black paper folder. with the title of that section's time signature on a paper label on the front flap of its folder. The work comprises 4 sets of drawings and covers consisting of a cover 12 x 12 x.25 inches and three hinged panels each 11.75 inches diameter. Each set of panels open to 35 inches. The paper used for this production is Strathmore 400 series acrylic sheets. Williams used dry pigments in alkyd medium, acrylic inks, enamel and pigment markers to create the color panels and the rhythm sections in music notation. The bindings are a disappearing hinge structure. The artist's working papers are available with the purchase of this work. In fine condition. $1,750 for each section or $6,000 for all four sections. ARTB/041724. Fine. More