NomNomNom: 2013

Thursday, 17 October 2013

Prints with Collograph plates in church gallery

Layering Screen Printed tissue paper with prints and fabric

Visually transparency is very important. I am working with layering my prints and structures, creating different levels of transparency. This represents being transparent to conditioned thinking and taboos, being open and fearless. I want the work to challenge conditioned thinking and the mental structures we construct. By layering the work, constructing and deconstructing, it takes away the familiarity of the imagery and creates an element of not knowing, creating questions.

Wax and Plaster work

The work plays with what is solid and what is not, questioning our perceptions. Looking at the mind, I want to question our thoughts, they concrete? The wax and plaster models explore this. The wax models contain elements of structure and prints that both protrude the models and sink into them. There is depth and an element of the unknown, I want people to question what is happening within these structures. I have hung the models by different materials to add a layer of tension, will they hold on? The plaster models are an excavation of the structures of the mind. I took the smooth plaster models and worked back into them, eroding them, revealing the layers and elements of structures underneath.

Layering and building

Building structures with screen printed masking tape, layered with tissue paper and acetate

Here I made a sheet of plaster so that I could screen print on it. 6 colour screen print.

I wanted to use a material that was malleable and had a reference to structure. Plaster is a strong material but can be easily carved back into and broken. I hope to work back into the plaster, breaking back into the structure.

Experiment with materials for Collographs

I wanted to build my structures on paper using collographs, I find that rough texture given by the carborundum suits my concept best. I also want to use the plates to build a 3D structure.

I used ply wood for this Collograph plate, I found this to be successful because of the grain achieved in the print.

This print has four layers, giving it a more 3D feeling, also breaking up the imaging, adding questions as to what is happening.

This is a section of the Steel plate I used to create a collograph.

The rust on the steel plate created an interesting texture on the finished prints as well. On this plate of have mixed imagery of steel structure with delicate lace, questioning strength and structure.

ScreenPrint on Tissue paper

Fragility is important to the work, as I am questioning our perceptions of what is strength. I decided to print on tissue paper to express this fragility, the image I used is one that we would associate with strength and stability, steel scaffolding. Printing this on tissue paper questions the material.

I wanted to give structure to the tissue paper but I don't think the bamboo works so I need to experiment with other ways of making the tissue paper work in structure.

Creating Structures

This year I want to work a lot in 3D, I began by creating simple structures with bamboo and wire, using paper and fabric. I enjoyed doing this but the there was no getting past the fact that everything looked like kites! I wanted a light weight feel to the structures but it wasn't really successful for my concept, as the first thing on would think of is "oh look at those lovely kites!"

Back to Print :)

This year I want my work to explore the structures of the mind, to express the idea of conflicting mental structures. My work the last couple years has had a recurring theme of dealing with the conflict in the mind. Last years really focused on depression and breaking down stigma. Now I want the work to question our mental structures, to portray the idea that these structures are not solid, but transient and open to change.

To get start I just played with imagery, photos I took in London, creating spaces by layering imagery. Physical structures are used as a visual metaphor for our mental structures.