Since I last posted, I have been developing my project through using the process of screenprinting. I decided the my original screen print design that I developed was too structured and controlled for my work and therefore have been developing screenprints by drawing into the screen with my finger, using stencils and creating negatives by pushing the ink through the screen. This has created a body of work towards my practice on both fabric and paper, for me to develop in the upcoming weeks.
The collection of red prints that I have made of faces, I am on the edge about developing further as I have think that they have reached a point already where they work well as both individual prints and also as a series of red printed faces.
With other prints I have developed by using layers of different techniques, I have found that sometimes the more layers that you add that it improves the overall look of the piece by giving the piece more depth and texture. Sometimes add more layers of screenprint can detract from the overall image by overpowering the lighter layers of print and making the overall image to dark. I have been using stencils and transparent inks to create the different layers in the prints.
In level 5 and throughout my dissertation I was researching and studying Indexical Traces. An Indexical Trace is a mark or evidence left behind by a person or an object that can be used to identify a point in history. In my studio work I was looking at footprints and the traces of people walking. In my dissertation, I was looking at the way traces are highlighted through the process that artists use to make their artwork. Charles S. Peirce, who wrote about Sign Theory in the 1880s, describes Indexical Traces as “an account of signification, representation, reference and meaning” (Pierce in Atkins, 2006).
To make my prints I have been pressing through the screen with my finger, this has created trace elements in my prints. Traces of the movements that I have made and also traces of my finger prints. these traces in my work, can help to bridge the gap between the viewer and myself as the artist. The artwork has a personal connection to me as my traces and traces of my fingerprints are in the artwork. This allows the viewer of my prints, to have a connection with myself as the artist as they can see the traces of my process.
Leading on from making these prints and also looking at artists that use process and trace in their work, I have come across the work of Christopher Wool, who uses painting and silk-screen print to make his pieces of work which show clear indexical traces of his process. Wool creates his original paintings by painting onto either aluminium or linen. He then develops these into a digital image for silk screen dividing the image into four images for silk screen due to the scale of the image. In the image the edges between the four parts are visible, as a trace of the the artists process of producing the print. (Funcke, 2017)
Atkin, A (2006) Peirce’s Theory of Signs, available at: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce-semiotics/ (accessed 9/10/16)
Brinson, K. (2017). Christopher Wool, Available at: https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/christopher-wool (Accessed 25 Mar. 2017)
Funcke, B. (2017). Revealed in reproduction, Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/revealed-reproduction (Accessed 25 Mar. 2017)
