UNIT 1: PROCESS AND CRITICAL REFLECTION

PROCESS AND CRITICAL REFLECTION

This page will act as a record of my process. I will document and critically reflect on my work and thoughts in the process of making. It is a journal of my art and the story of my methodology and practice.

THE PROJECT

The aim of my current project is to explore and reinterpret various visually appealing phenomena that could reveal shared experience, and a connection with a familiar thing, network of things or process we take for granted or are normally oblivious. My previous body of work was very concerned with documenting and commemorating the creative process of making. It investigated the different methods and journeys of discovery that artists took to bring their work into being1. I am keen to develop this further and plan on various experimentation, especially using intaglio techniques.

DOCUMENTATION AND REFLECTION ON MY PROCESS

THE TRACES OF MAKING

FROM FROTTAGE TO THE PRINT ROOM

I happened by chance recently, while working in an etching print room, to gaze down upon a table while waiting for my plate to etch. I noticed indentations, cuts, slashes, scrapes and various markings. This got me thinking that, in these almost invisible traces, were the fragments or memories of the process of making. I rapaciously took rubbings of these records of activity, my sweeping graphite gestures, in my thinking, helping to breathe new life into what was the hustle and bustle of craft2.

I then took these into the print studio with the intention of bringing them back into notice and ‘existence’, aptly in my mind, using the same process which gave birth to them. After discussing my intentions with the technician, it was recommended to create a “screen etch resist” of a section of the rubbing. Having decided on a suitable section that appealed to me, I cropped the image in photoshop and created negatives to further the process. In the midst of this process, I happened to see the technician demonstrate how to do digital transfer and thought that this would be an interesting experiment to transcribe them into print. The resulting transfer process was difficult and by its nature imperfect, but the resulting prints were certainly interesting and varied.

I felt that, like memory, this process is not a perfect, literal representation of the original material, it is one step removed from it. The imperfect transfer is like the process of memory itself, an imperfect process of recollection. This felt most apt considering rubbing's capacity to record and collect micro histories of place and time and still further since this is something I am hoping to capture. Furthermore, there is, for me, a parallel with the etching process. You never know exactly what the print will be produced. The depth of the line, how much ink is on the plate and even the pressure of the press all adds to the less than precise transfer of idea to image.

At around this time, I was asking myself a few poignant questions about my methodology. Firstly, why is the medium I am using the best medium and vessel for my ideas; Why not just take a photograph for example? Secondly, how can I turn my marks into something more poetic, especially when they are removed from the immediacy of drawing in the transfer process and the decision making is made in an increasingly digital fashion?

To answer the first, I considered the quality of the frottage method and its history3. A rubbing is an impression on a surface, very much like an etching. It can also be considered as one of the very first forms of printmaking, the process going back to the 2nd Century AD in China. Max Ernst described the simple gesture of rubbing as “making visible things that remain hidden”4. For Ernst this was about finding a means of expression for the unconscious imagery in his mind. For me, rather than looking into my own internal psyche, I wish to capture something of the uniqueness of the etching process. Certainly, the aggressive physicality of rubbing fits quite well the physical engagement that etching requires. The Czech artist Andreina Simotova saw the process as “to live and capture once and for all the urgency and uniqueness of that moment. After this, it can never be lost.5” Although Simotova practice was situated in the body, it is that kind of awareness of memory6 and time that could perhaps represent a shared notion of the idiosyncratic process of etching7. The print room is where the magic happens, where the experimentation and creativity in the moment is born. Could its holdings, its archaeological artifacts not be, if not synonymous, at least symbolic of its process8?

In terms of photography, a rubbing also has added benefits on top of the intrinsic qualities that make a drawing the unique image making craft that it is9. Historically, rubbings can create a more accurate image than photography can10. Although my rubbings do not use cobblers wax, they still, for me at least, produce unique properties that would be missed with a standard camera. They pick out details in the indented lines, much like the ink sinks into the burr in a dry point etching. They allow for a feeling of ephemerality of time and place. It is an intrinsically representational and haptic experience that cannot be replicated by any other means11. The tactility inherent in this method of drawing is something I wish to explore further.

The second question opens up the problem of representation in opposition to abstraction. Although the look of frottages rubbings can be very abstract they are in fact indexical. Being a true representation of the print table that they emerged from. This to me seems apt considering what I am trying to express. However, in leaving the source material fundamentally unaltered my ability to reconstitute it in a perhaps more meaningful way is limited. I have taken a two-pronged approach and turned to both a more technological solution, as well as the traditional process of printmaking, hoping I can translate the work into a more poetic pictorial language. I am encouraged by the example of Vermeer who used the camera obscura, a scientific method of viewing objects in natural light, to form a most beautiful language. I believe that a mixture of more traditional methods and digital means can create work of “outstanding refinement”12.

I decided to test out drawing back into the images with a smaller plate, combining digital transfer with more traditional techniques. I attempted to superimpose the marks back onto the print in soft ground, hoping to find further expression in the marks made.

I felt the resulting print that was pressed back into the original work had extra richness, the velvety blacks reinforcing the digital imprint behind, and creating an odd feeling of evanescence as the background became partially subsumed by the image atop it. There was something that just felt right about the idea of experimenting with rectangles within other rectangles. It seemed to emulate the process itself as plate is put atop paper for printing. Etching is about layering, and this process of transcription seemed to mimicry that process. The resulting print, although pleasing in parts, lacks cohesion. The second print is quite dominant, and I will attempt to further experiment by making the ink more translucent, so the image has a greater cohesiveness.

FURTHER EXPERIMENTS WITH DIGITAL TRANSFERS

To take my experiments further, I attempted to transfer a digital image onto a copper plate. This would allow me greater control, especially in terms of creating a straight rectangle, making the different elements line up more accurately. Moreover, it would allow me to experiment with colour and take multiple prints. Sadly, however many times I tried to get the digital print to adhere to the copper plate, it just would not take to it. Instead, I embarked upon the original idea of a screen etch resist.

The image was turned into a digital negative and placed onto a screen. Straw hat varnish was then pressed over the exposed screen onto a scratched copper plate and aquatint was applied and etched to create an image. The resulting image was certainly a step forward in terms of finding a platform for consistent experimentation. The image certainly has some allure and complexity that catches the eye. The middle grey tone could be further encouraged, and the middle black rolled back somewhat.

I decided to press on with further experimentation, printing the new copper plate onto my original digital transfer images that I had made earlier in the term. The resulting images, although interesting in parts, could not quite find the cohesiveness I was looking for, despite the best attempts at making the ink more transparent and thoroughly wiping the plate. The one colour or tone just dominated the other too much. To compound matters the press malfunctioned and caused a tear in some of the test prints. It was also extremely difficult to register. My attempt to also relief roll was not the opacity I was hoping for. Despite these setbacks it has become clear to me that the best thing I can do to move forward with these prints is to draw into them. To pick out marks would bring back the marks into my own process. I think I may also attempt to “layer” my drawings using an overhead projector, thinking about composition and form13.

I have begun working back into the plate and I am asking myself what is the essential qualities of the image that get me excited and interested? When reinscribing into the work, what aspects do I want to emphasize. I plan to draw out these aspects using hardground as a start. Hard ground’s bold outline, I feel, will help create a 3-D illusion of depth, getting the image to a closer more animated position for the viewer to appreciate the rubbings in all their intricacies. I May attempt many processes of etching onto the plate, discovering methods of printmaking and its processes on an image that has symbolism of that process.

I am asking myself what constitutes the traces of making and its memories. How do I illustrate in some fashion an abstract process? I have been looking at synapses and neurons. I am starting to think about the imagery’s organic web as like movements and connections, railway lines leading to various waypoints. There is connectivity in the lines. Structures and systems that could perhaps demarcate a process?

LOOKING CLOSER AT THE STRUCTURE OF HOLY LEAVES

Working contemporaneously on a different serious of rubbings, I was captivated by the intricate structure of holy leaves. Leaves are a very familiar part of our lives that we take for granted. We sweep, trample and otherwise think little of them. Their bare bones, however, have a wealth of interest that I find very visually appealing. I attempted to bring out various patterns in them through rubbings to create new, interconnected super structures and landscapes14. I subsequently attempted to make them into dry points. I was hoping to capture something of the strength and power of these reimagined compositions via the rich velvety line of dry point.

PHOTOGRAMS, EXPERIMENTS WITH LIGHT

In terms of photography, I see myself as an artist who uses photography rather than in any way being a photographer.15 Like Man Ray the photogram, for which he was so famous, appeals to me as a way of taking “material apart“ and discovering “its most hidden molecules“16. The precision that the ”Rayograph” affords lends itself nicely to highlighting the complexity and uniqueness of objects. It certainly acts to show leaves in an unfamiliar and quite expressive way.

There is certainly something in this image that touches on, as Blake put it, seeing the world "in a grain of sand”17. Seeing things very small and then taking them and making them very large, echoing the curiosity and excitement evoked by such works as Robert Hooks ”Micrographia”. The aesthetic allure of the strange and bizarre18 cannot help but resonate in these works when something out of the normal confines of our physical world is brought to the fore like this19. However, I am more interested in reinterpreting these novel visual stimuli, into the building blocks of new forms, like a form of architecture that provides the scaffolding for the works. I intend to further develop these images by turning them into drawings, using certain drawing systems like linear perspective to further provide for those architectonic forms this project strives for.

DIGITAL FABRICATION

Paul Coldwell’s lecture really opened my eyes to the possibility of 3-D printing and other processes. This, alongside my admiration for Cornelia Parker’s work, got me interested in pursuing its full range of possibilities19. I experimented with several Laser cuts of the frottage leaves to get a feel for the process and to play around with paper collage and scale.

I was quite pleased with the results of the laser cuts, and this encouraged me to persevere with the idea of getting people closer and more engaged with the print table frottages. It has been suggested that rubbings act like a “lexicon of the language of touch” and “connect physically” between the artist and the viewer20. I wish to bring forth still further this physical connection, this invitation to appreciate the tangible in something quite abstract, overlooked and forgotten. I therefore thought about the idea of creating 3-D prints of the rubbings, giving them actual physicality from essentially a 2-D form. I first tested a wood laser cut.

I find very the relief detail inticing and plan to make some prints from it in the future. From this I also intend to use computer software to create an actual sculptural object, that is essentially free standing. From this I am considering using a bronze pour to create a caste of this object. There is something poetic about an object borne by touch that is now touchable. I am also considering making a video of the made construct’s digital design, perhaps using the unreal engine as a sort of gateway into this micro history.

I have learnt how to use blender and Lithophane digital software to render a 3-D digital model of what my cast could look like:

After further discussion with my tutors, I have decided to try and hold off on creating a cast in metal for the present. I want to develop these marks further and take the concept to a more advanced level, before committing to turning them into something very intricate. Instead, I will focus on creating 3-D digital prints as well as creating casts with plaster of Paris. I will research further how to go about doing this, booking into ceramics in due course.

FROTTAGE RUBBINGS OF THE STUDIO AND PRINT ROOM

I have regularly taken rubbings from various parts of my studio space, including the floor, my table and the lockers. I have also made new rubbings from the print room floor, which I find to be a particularly rich source of mark making. I am finding the traces of human activity, like an archaeologist looking for marks and wondering how they came to be. I am questioning how it manifests itself in the presence of time. I have experimented with different media, including graphite, charcoal, colour pencil, pastel and even biro. My aim is to produce better techniques for getting an even distribution of marks and greater clarity in my images. I plan to focus more deeply, becoming more ambitious and deepen my research of my methodology. I will use draw back into the images as well use erasers and other material experimentation. I will attempt to experiment with more sculptural paper rubbing techniques. I have ambition to play with paper folding, cutting and other manipulation.

DISTORTED PERSPECTIVE ARCHITECTURE

Concurrently to my other projects I am attempting to continue with the greatly abstracted forms amassed within the Velinheli Steam dome. The dome of a steam train that was exhibited at King's Cross Station. After making sketches of this, I used an overhead projector to manipulate and reorientate the marks until they took on new contexts, creating a new visual vocabulary.

David Bomberg's recent national gallery exhibition, with his beautiful, abstracted forms, was a great inspiration for me. I am excited to play with the various marks I have made, giving them shape and form. I hope to use the overhead projector to continue to evolve the sprawling mass of heavily distorted marks. I feel an affinity with the earliest animators who attempted to project drawings up onto a screen. I feel that working in this way has a certain “elegance“ in the “simplicity of its means”21.

Foot Notes

I am interested in the work of Andrew Gassie, that often focuses on documenting his art practice and that of the art world ingeneral;https://www.cityandguildsartschool.ac.uk/andrew-grassie-3/
I have subsequently found Tim Ingold's chapter 'Drawing the line' in making,.. (write a long bit on this)
See 'Relevant Contextual Research' for discussion on Apparitions: frottages and rubbings from 1860 to now
Ernst, M., FontánM. and Arp, H. (2018). Max Ernst Historia natural 1926. Cuenca Fundación Juan March.
5 Pesenti, A., Tex, H. and Hammer Museum (2015). Apparitions : frottages and rubbings from 1860 to now. Los Angeles: Hammer Museum ; Houston. p18
I am currently excited about coming across the work of Do Ho Su
Much in the same way as Do Ho SuH thinks about collective memory. See Contexts. Apparitions: frottages and rubbings from 1860 to now P23 see research page. “rubbings are a physical witness of a place or a moment in time".
8 Ingold talked about how gestural drawing "transforms abstraction into something the audience can also follow and be transformed by”
Ingold posits: “ Drawing’s uniqueness lies in the expression of time and movement”
5 Pesenti, A., Tex, H. and Hammer Museum (2015). Apparitions : frottages and rubbings from 1860 to now. Los Angeles: Hammer Museum ; Houston. p21
Coldwell, P. (2010). Printmaking : a contemporary perspective. London, Uk: Black Dog Pub. p5
I was thinking about the methoodlogy of Ingrind Calame
13 See Contextual Analyses on Graham Sutherlands landscapes.
See: Ray, M. (1980). Man Ray : the photographic image. London: Gordon Fraser.
Ibid p8
William Blake, Auguries of Innocence. See also Apparitions: frottages and rubbings from 1860 “micro histories” p62
Shearman, J. (1977). Mannerism. Harmondsworth: Penguin B p156
Calame, I., Bradley, F. and Fruitmarket Gallery (2011). Ingrid Calame. Edinburgh: Fruitmarket Gallery ; London. p61
See Contexts on Cornelia Parker and her pavement crack casting
Apparitions: frottages and rubbings from 1860 , p23
Drawing Centre's Drawing Papers 60, Selections Spring 2006, Analog Animation.