Hold

Which tools did you use for the creation of this piece?
This work is a monoprint which means I used a printing press and plate in order to create it. My usual method is to cover the printing plate in ink and work backward, removing the ink with rags and brushes to reveal the image. While it is majority a reductive technique, I can add and manipulate the ink before it goes through the press.

What was the creative process behind it?
This work was from a series of prints investigating how the body and self intersect with emerging technologies. I use ambiguous bodily forms to create a sense of tension between these two forces. This print breaks down the body into shapes and sweeping marks, creating an anxious reflection of how the body reacts to the post-human pressure of the Anthropocene.

What feelings come to you when you look at it?
It makes me feel strangely comforted. While my creative drive is the tension between self and technology, this print speaks to a moment of anxious self-soothing to me. The overlapping of forms, sweeping lines, and leg-like structure makes me feel like there’s a flurry of emotions being kept together to create a form. Despite its dark imagery, it makes me feel a sense of solace. This print is one of my favorites. I come back to it when I’m feeling a bit lost.

“Despite its dark imagery, it makes me feel a sense of solace.”

What do you like most about this piece and why?
I like the contrast most in this work. The light limb-like forms seem to emerge and connect from the background darkness, loosely and roughly joining together. The painterly effect given by scraping back the ink with a rag was effective in conveying a sense of foreground and background. I enjoy this the most as it is not only very satisfying to print, I feel it is effective in communicating a sense of constraint.

What were your references, influences or inspirations during your creative process?
Before I print I do a lot of observational drawings of cloth and piles of clothing. I find that fabrics overlap and fold in ways that can be interestingly abstracted. From there I’ll look at bodily forms, looking at muscle groups, how the body bends, and where strain occurs. When I feel as if I’ve got a vague compositional idea, I’ll intersect these two studies during the printing process.

What did you enjoy the most about the process?
The action of removing ink and drawing into the plate is very soothing. I find it relaxing to carve out a concept from a dark blank slate. This particular print was also satisfying as it took shape quite quickly and took very little reworking. The series it comes from was the same, after I’d done my preparatory drawings the printing process went quite smoothly.

What was the hardest thing for you and how did you solve it?
The most difficult thing about these prints is that they are so individual, the process produces only one print. I can try to reproduce it if something fails, but I find I lose my patience trying to find what made the first print good. To combat this I try to work on several ideas at a time, returning to anything that didn’t work at a later stage. This gives me a bit more insight into what works and what doesn’t when I have a larger range to reference.

Where would you like to see it exhibited?
I like to think this work would suit a larger series of similar prints. I think it’d be interesting when it’s interacting with other work.