I want to continue investigating my environment, linking my professional background as an architect, and my personal life within a nuclear family so that the theme of my work is centred around my domestic space, with a narrative about the inevitable timeline of decay. Using the collapse of a building through time and use; worn out carpet, cracks in walls, disorder in the bathroom and kitchen, the work could become a metaphor for life, ageing and relationships in a shared space.
I was interested in Rachel Whiteread's laser cut ply inspired by glasses and bottle marks left on a table, which gave me the confidence to paint the essence of the Frottage on lino, rather than reproduce it exactly, as I had done on the metal plate previously. I want to continue to investigate and develop the technical side of the process I have devised, to see where it leads to, but also I want to combine the ideas of process and manual labour - direct mark making from direct use of tools - pouring, scraping, mimicking yet transforming textures and marks from the rubbings. It is this engagement with the specificity of the material which becomes the link between architecture as the theme of the work, and process - in both there is relationship between person, tools and real material.
I'm using my rubbings of the bathroom crack - here is the photo of it:
The frottage repeated the crack ie several rubbings of it side by side with the bathroom door lock added:
In a way the "essence" of the crack was transferred to two lino block using Brunswick Black poured and scraped and dripped through stencils. The stencil almost behaved like a crack through which the Brunswick Black could seep. One of the floor rubbings was also "mimicked".
The blocks were allowed to dry as before, then etched with caustic soda (this time 2 tbsp wall paper flakes per 200ml water. 1.5 tbsp caustic soda. Left for 30 mins.)
Below is the printed lino block of the hall floor. Experience of the process has told me that the resultant ink was not as thick as in previous lino blocks and therefore would not transfer to the metal plate. There would not be enough density of ink to be acid resist, so would not produce a printable plate. I decided not to pursue the etching onto metal of this block, although I may well use it elsewhere.
The following two lino blocks were variations of "Bathroom Crack" which were printed onto paper and offset onto the prepared zinc plate, as previously described. These were then aquatinted, etched and printed. I would have preferred there to be more ink to resist the acid, with less white grinning through, but I decided to go with them anyway.
Shown above are the prints from each of the metal etched plates - as before they are the reverse of the lino prints. Continuing the process from previously I combined these images into two plate etchings and also experimented with colour. Because the lino-to-metal process results in positive marks forming negative marks, less black on the lino print transfers to less white or negative areas on the metal etched print. My combination etched prints rely on white areas - paper showing through - to create layering and overlapping. To enhance the effect, I worked on some of the plates by burnishing to create more negative areas, and also used plate extender to reduce colour intensity:
The resultant marks are more restrained and constrained than the previous etchings and were developed from single images made on a single lino plate, whereas previously the original lino image went over four blocks and I used a portion of that image. They can all form part of a series of prints, exploring different starting points to make different marks and different combinations of plates.
I was interested in Rachel Whiteread's laser cut ply inspired by glasses and bottle marks left on a table, which gave me the confidence to paint the essence of the Frottage on lino, rather than reproduce it exactly, as I had done on the metal plate previously. I want to continue to investigate and develop the technical side of the process I have devised, to see where it leads to, but also I want to combine the ideas of process and manual labour - direct mark making from direct use of tools - pouring, scraping, mimicking yet transforming textures and marks from the rubbings. It is this engagement with the specificity of the material which becomes the link between architecture as the theme of the work, and process - in both there is relationship between person, tools and real material.
I'm using my rubbings of the bathroom crack - here is the photo of it:
The blocks were allowed to dry as before, then etched with caustic soda (this time 2 tbsp wall paper flakes per 200ml water. 1.5 tbsp caustic soda. Left for 30 mins.)
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| Bathroom Crack: Brunswick Black applied through stencils |
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| Hall Floor about to be caustic soda etched |
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| Hall Floor Further with etched block |
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| Lino block print of "bathroom crack" |
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| second Lino block print of "bathroom crack" |
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| etching |
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| etching |
Shown above are the prints from each of the metal etched plates - as before they are the reverse of the lino prints. Continuing the process from previously I combined these images into two plate etchings and also experimented with colour. Because the lino-to-metal process results in positive marks forming negative marks, less black on the lino print transfers to less white or negative areas on the metal etched print. My combination etched prints rely on white areas - paper showing through - to create layering and overlapping. To enhance the effect, I worked on some of the plates by burnishing to create more negative areas, and also used plate extender to reduce colour intensity:
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| corner study of bathroom crack with burnishing and more wiping |
The resultant marks are more restrained and constrained than the previous etchings and were developed from single images made on a single lino plate, whereas previously the original lino image went over four blocks and I used a portion of that image. They can all form part of a series of prints, exploring different starting points to make different marks and different combinations of plates.
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| single plate two colours |
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| Two plate, each in a different colour |
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| single plate, multi coloured |
