Having mapped out my plan of the large format print, tested the bed pressure, I am now proceeding with this print - twice the size of the printing bed. I hope to experience what happens both technically and artistically when the scale almost gets out of hand. Tearing the roll of paper was a nightmare as it had to be torn in width and length. My initial plan that I would print the whole of the first layer in one go has been rejected. Instead I have created a registration sheet, printed the first eight base tiles, left them to dry for two days, marked the last tiles on the reverse of the paper, re-positioned and printed the next eight base tiles. The last tiles didn't quite pick up the ink when passed through the press, so I used a barren on these.
This is almost like a banner, to be viewed from a distance, unlike the close up, intimate viewing of my etchings. When you are up close, you can see that the squares have not received colour evenly, which gives it a handmade printed quality, and the red colour varies slightly across the sheet. It looks like terracotta tiles, rather than the bathroom reference of the colours used previously. I am not comfortable with the fact that the paper, even though dampened, has ruckled and split. If I am to pursue this, there will be a lot of learning to be done to master the technique.
However, on with the second layer of tiles, as my sketches of layout. Again, after the first layer was dry, half the banner was tackled using the same registration sheet, adding chine collee.
The chine collee jumps out too much, and as it crosses the white gaps it caused the paper to ruckle again; the black on red is also too much of a contrast; the gaps between the tiles are wider than on the blue piece so a lot of the white paper is showing through and dividing the tiles up. Not happy but will continue anyway.
I decided to cut the banner in half so the second half could be printed with a colour nearer to the base red which wouldn't jump out so much. I also rejected chine collee.
These are the four banners hanging in the studio.
To conclude this piece for Andrew Hewish's "Task 4" (make a piece including at least four media) and coinciding with international women's day, I added a load of smashed bathroom tiles at their base, applied paint with a bathroom sponge to detract from the white space between tiles, added text from the nursery rhyme and "The Scaffolds" 60's song "Monday's washing day, Tuesday's soup...etc" in a circular fashion around the tiles, with a recorded background hum of the fridge. Together with the garish red colour it could be viewed as a breakdown and destruction of the domestic environment, almost out of control, an exasperation with life...
Over the last few weeks in the print room I feel like I am reproducing the work of a tiler or a builder setting out a building in its early stage, and whilst my project has centred around the built environment this is straying too far from what I was investigating. I do think it was useful to work at a large scale and see that the visual impact is different; the work is less intimate; marks are bolder and perhaps the quality of the prints is less important as they are viewed from a distance. But now I want to continue with my quieter pieces, cracks, worn carpet etc
