Printing_Multi-plate and Artists Book_Final

The final images were photographed in a three hour setting, rain, sun, humidity, wind and a fair bit of moving around. The rice paper tore, but that didn't bother me - again, mishaps... The final object, is a rolled manuscript type object - wrapped in hessian sacking with ties and raffia - heavy and precious feeling - that's what I like the most about it...

I found my final prints resolved my idea of text and texture, reveal and conceal and the transformation of the mask. My final project developed directly from the project 4 resolved prints. For the final project, my intention was to keep with the book as an object, layered, and telling a story – as a recorded installation. The book tells a story, it reveals the plot as it moves from open, read, and closed. And the mask is used traditionally in a ceremony in which it is put on or constructed. Then, the wearer 'transcends'. Once the ritual is over, the celebration ends, and the mask is ceremoniously wrapped and placed in a sacred location, waiting for its next celebration. I hoped to construct these stories through the installation.

I wanted to present my prints simply and thoughtfully – using the hessian sacking as a book cover, the round spirals as the book spine and the pages as multi-plate experiments.

Through both exercises, and the presentation of the outcomes in this submission, I felt a sense of process progression and transformation of my initial concept. I began to realize through the outcomes that there is a greater degree of intuition involved with my work, which I hoped to convey. If found myself considering multiple outcomes, and ultimately trying out each avenue I thought might be representative of text and the book. The collagraphs for example, took longer than expected, because I found myself exploring more as I reached a point where a plate no longer 'worked'. I tried conventional techniques, and found this limited the sense of freedom I had felt with the initial monographs I had connected with.

Throughout the processes I experimented with various papers, techniques, textures, materials and concepts, to transform not only the concept of the mask, but how it could be used in a rhythmic, intuitive, 'transcendental' way which also reflected the artists and writers I'd been influenced by.

I researched artists who express an 'incidental' or intuitive approach to their work, such as Lucy Freud, Joseph Beuys, Marcel Duchamp, William Kentridge, Marlene Dumas and Henri Michaux. I investigated writers and poets that had a similar approach.

My approach to both exercises, was to to start with an image (often of a mask) or artists work, word, sentence etc. and never to preconceive the end result. This facilitated abstraction, and allowed an intuitive approach to the development of a piece. I digested all the visuals and writings I come into contact with, from history and 'now' and applied all this information to my workings.

With the scale and size of the works, I felt most comfortable with a larger size – most of the final prints being just under A3 in size. For the final project, I kept with the size but decided to explore works having borders – I began each print as a circle, which was then reflected in final circular shape of the installation – this to me was fitting for the theme of transformation being like a cycle of change, which again, is important to the mask and its 'life' cycle as a ceremonial artifact.

Printing_Multi-plate and Artists Book_5

I photographed over three hours, and did in such a way as to photograph the experience of the book – beginning, middle and end.

The masks became vital in the revealing and concealing of the pages, as I moved them from one shape to the next, and from one room to the next. Even the wrapping up of the pages after taking down the installation, felt like the removal of a mask after a ceremony, and the ending of a ritual.

Printing_Multi-plate and Artists Book_4

I chose a decayed industrial powerhouse because of it's urban texture and feeling. I have always wanted to photograph the location, and felt the book would be suitable as an installation in this area. There are two rooms which have been abandoned, but maintained by the Powerhouse, Brisbane. I did have to ask permission to photograph here, and so I had three hours, to go in, construct the installation, move it from the one room, to the next room, and then remove the installation, wrapping the pages in their book cover.

The concrete textures, with the wood and brick decay lend themselves well to the textures I have tried to print in my course. I enjoyed the wire around the concrete and wanted all these experiences to be in my book.

The location also has a painted circular formation in front of it, which always gives me a sense of 'urban ritual', which is why I incorporated it into the opening and closing of the book.

The weather was a big factor, I needed good weather to be able to shoot outdoors – but I was prepared to let the pages get wet in the process. I felt that any experience the pages had would be part of the overall process of the book.