In short

This exhibition was the result of a love for printmaking, drawing, problem-solving and the people around me. It represents almost two years of experimentation and research. The displayed works showcased my progress and a selection of the best of what was produced during that time, including drawings, plates and prints. 

 

 

In full

In March 2020, everything changed and the world was forced to rethink what constituted ‘normal’. Soon after going into lockdown, a friend sent me a link to a video series called Lemon-Etch Litho by Muskat Studios in America. The studio had developed a non-toxic, low-cost and easily accessible way of creating planographic prints at home, based on the Kitchen Litho technique invented by artist and educator Émilie Aizier (a.k.a Émilion) in 2011. Given the inability to access studio spaces and equipment, techniques like this seemed appropriate during the global crisis. After some trial and error with Kitchen Litho and Lemon-Etch Litho, I found both to be not-so-accessible in the South African context. This started me on a long, fulfilling and often highly frustrating journey to come up with a planographic printmaking technique better suited to my context. Like many printmaking processes, it is based on techniques which came before but with some significant changes. Ingredients and materials have been substituted with that which is readily available, steps have been added, some done away with, and others kept. 

 

The printed works on display were a selection of the best of what had been produced since starting my journey with Monolitho and adaptations of the Lemon-Etch Litho and Kitchen Litho processes that came before. All prints on the Kizuki Kozo tissue paper and silk have been produced using the Monolitho technique in its most resolved form yet. (This unusual and rather ‘high-end’ paper and fabric should not mislead viewers, however. The plates can, as intended, be printed onto any tissue paper or various fabrics by hand).

 

As the pandemic unfolded, I also became more aware of the people around me and how quickly things could change. Living in the time of the global pandemic brought home the precariousness of life and the transience of ‘normal’. That which exists today might not tomorrow. I began drawing people at work and, as my day-to-day is mostly spent on campus in studios, the drawings largely featured staff and students. 

 

This exhibition is also a celebration of drawing. Most have been completed within seconds or a couple of minutes, capturing the gesture of the figure and their action. Titles are added as soon as a drawing is completed to describe what happened in that moment. This manner of drawing also prepared me for the more unforgiving planographic printmaking process, where erasure is not possible, and one must also work with reasonable speed. Once the mark has been made on the tinfoil plate, using a greasy drawing tool, it cannot be removed. In this there is ‘honesty’ and it forces one to really pay attention to who or what they are observing. Thank you to everyone who sat for me. It was an enjoyable, fulfilling experience.