Various Prints
Having started a membership at my local Print studio, I’ve realised that I need to continually come up with ideas to produce work. This seems pretty obvious but for me was a realisation after the 3rd month of subscription left my bank account. Initially the pressure made me feel uneasy, but then a realisation washed over that this was the opportunity to experiment & play around. So, discarding the notion that perfect exhibition ready work had to me produced every time I went to the print studio, some unexpected work was made.
Sticking with my usual theme of printing on plastic sheeting, I decided to use an image that has entered into various aspects of my practice, a tyre pile.
After watching a conversation with artists Jen Orpin & writer Gareth E. Rees about fringe areas of the built environment, I have been thinking about how this topic comes into my own work. The materials I use along with images I print onto them often fit within this conversation. Looking into this further terms such as, ‘RURBAN FRINGE’, ‘EDGELANDS’ & ‘BASTARD COUNTRYSIDE’ cropped up. Along with the usual Monarflex that I print onto there is also the deconstructed parts of a fluorescent orange vinyl bag that I recovered from a skip. This material has a much smoother surface & is of course very colourful, so I really wanted to see how it would turn out once printed onto.
The combined Image, Text & either Colour or Transparency bring together in one place some of the elements that I enjoy bringing to printed work. A combination that has become a focus of my print aesthetic. This then took another step when I decided to make a run of prints on tracing paper.
The set of tracing paper prints was considered using the same principals I apply to the Monarflex work. A detailed dark image on the top surface & a coloured back ground on the back side of the translucent material. Keeping with the Edgeland theme I decided to print the image of a concrete road bridge passing over an estuary, reed bed wetland & into a wooded area in the distance. This fascinating space experienced from a footpath encapsulates the intersection between nature & civil engineering. Concrete & Water. Bridge & Treetops. Traffic & Tranquility. This space which is naturally very minimalist is dramatised in my print by the use of vivid colours for the sky, made in 2 variations. Lavender into Pinky Peach & Sunset Blue into Lavender. Each depicting a different moment of a romanticised sunset.
While printing onto tracing paper, which I have never done before, a few technical issues popped up. One- The weight of the paper & its resistance to moisture meant that the application of ink curled up the print once the suction of the table stopped. So for each print after pulling the squeegee to apply the colour I had to hold the screen off the print far enough so that it didnt stick but not so far that the suction turned off. The length of time doing this was about 40 seconds. After that point it was possible to move the tracing paper without it rolling up on its self. Add to that there were 40 prints, each with 3 layers. This printing run became more time & labor intensive than I had expected.
Two- When the images had dried they remained wrinkly in places. The outcome being that each finished print has a slightly different wrinkle pattern making it difficult to hang them flat. Usually this is a quality that I embrace, but on a standardised paper size Im still deciding if its ok.
Three- The blend of the colours in the sky takes several pulls before the mix works well. This resulted in some prints having interesting swirls of colour rather than a gentle ombre.
All of these issues were addressed as they arose because I had decided that I would make no tests & just use all 30 sheets of tracing paper. This lead to a finished edition that has all of the working out in it.
Since making a mass of prints for CORRESPONDENCE01 where the quality of each print was varied due to the load of the work & the desire to explore the preciousness of printed editions. I have worked around the idea of keeping everything & grading it. Considering the value of the each print within its series. Similar to the age old discipline of ‘Showing the Working’ which was always preached during maths class incase the answer was wrong but the method was correct. It leaves a trail that can be traced showing all of the decisions made along the way. I guess this process produces what would otherwise be know as the artists proof. However I would consider how these prints can be incorporated in with the whole. This is to be explored further.