Printmaking – Installation – Photography – Research
The show ‘Bennett and Garrett’ is the first exhibition by myself and photographer Joanna Garrett and it was hosted by one of my favourite research facilities ‘In Certain Places’ at the pop-up exhibition and engagement space ‘The Test Bed’.
I love the way that Jo talks about the magic of the darkroom, the physical interactions between chemistry and light, it is alchemy and I adore it. I think it is so easy to disassociate the physicality of making work from the final outcome which often ends up, framed and pristine, on a white wall.
When I’m working in the darkroom with Jo, I can relax. We often discuss the crossovers and co-dependencies of printmaking and photography. How each process informs, shapes and directs the evolution of the other, while still remaining very separate artforms.
Stone Lithography is a skill that I have always wanted to obtain, but it has always seemed to be closer to witchcraft than printmaking.
I think that is part of the magic, taking a stone, drawing materials and array of chemicals, and after many hours of rubbing, flapping and mixing various chemicals a body of work will begin to form.
My Fellowship began with soft ground etching. After beginning to read the work of Deleuze and Guattari my first inclination was to begin to explore it physically. For me, the most intuitive way was through the medium of soft ground etching. Adapting the traditional method to suit my needs I allowed the allowed impure water to settle and oxidize on the plates. As the oxidization formed it created pathways that formed streams, which in turn informed the soft ground and eventual etch.
In my last blog post, I spoke about the difficulties in forming a conversation between the marks that were present on the plate. To me, the etch was shouting over the natural striations and oxidisation that I was encouraging to form. Resolved to take an active approach to mark making. Utilising soft-ground, Lascaux varnish, impure water and a pertinent quotation from A Thousand Plateaus I began to experiment.
Continue reading “Multiplicity, Soft-ground and Stop Start Etching”