While working on the Simulacrum series which uses a collage fragment and a printed element derived from other fragments, I altered the surfaces of some pieces. I experimented with aging effects for two reasons. Firstly because some of the surfaces were very shiny and took the print inks less well. Secondly because after testing (pictured here, 5 devises and abrasions image) I realised that the effects of breaking the shiny surface created yet another connotation to add to the references in the prints. The series is almost complete now.
The ‘Devices’ series is the next series to expand. I will complete the first print run (the green image pictured in the last blog post and here in the device and note-page sketchbook) when I get back to the residency. In the meantime I have developed a second version with extra devices to alter the significations, and also use colour in different also to associate signs with context. I worked out a test layering on Photoshop with the reporters note-page inverted to negative instead of the positive register of the first Devices piece. This Devices series extends the ideas I had for a series called ‘Reportage’, which relates more closely to newspapers, and is now more complex. This new method more closely follows my starting point in the residency, where ‘the trace of the real or everyday’ is important. In this version the method of production uses the note-page directly as the mask in the screen-printing. But it also uses light and colour in a different way, not just because the first one was just in green, but because the suggestion of depth is more intense with a central white area. I think it creates a different engagement.
So the ideas are becoming more elaborate and refined, and also as the second sketchbook page shows the ideas are expanding faster than I can produce. I am thinking now about alternatives for printmaking where other found surfaces or objects may be used for printing on. I will probably need more time to take that route, and it would perhaps move too far away from the residency project concept. I have worked up more ideas for the Reportage series and developed a complementary series with the working title ‘Front Page’ or ‘newsstand’. This is well underway with compositions tested, though not pictured here and work will start next week on the real thing.
