Artist Statement
Media hybridization is used in these prints by first using digital capture, manipulation, and digital output before layering with traditional copper-plate photogravure on the same support. A digital positive allows for fine-tuning both technical and creative content variables. But the end result is still a photogravure, although a more complex combined-media gravure.
The first two examples from 2009 (Ironman and Barbie) are disintegrating 125-year-old glass plate negatives that were scanned and made into traditional copper photogravure plates. An appropriation was layered into each image to become a colour inkjet component printed on rag inkjet paper. The photogravure plate was printed in black on top of this digital print in perfect register.
The resulting hybrid prints address time, decay, history, memory, pop culture, the loss of childhood, gender stereotyping, and the politics of all-of-the-above. Photogravure recreates the decay of the original negative with incredible fidelity, while the digital color bridges time and space to help us find common ground with these long-gone children.
The more recent examples (Flowers and Buddhas), use photopolymer-gravure plates to print the black layer of the full image over everything but the color inkjet flowers or blue Buddhas. The print itself is a hybridization of digital inkjet, with its vivid photographic reality, and photogravure, with its inky graphic solidity; the latter standing in for the stone and its rough textures and relative permanence. The prints isolate and contrast the natural CMYK inkjet color with the more robust ink of intaglio photogravure.
The new (2024) color/gravure hybrid prints are views from a Japanese Buddhist temple taken in 2023. They are meant to contrast the slow decay of hard stone sculptures versus the fragility of flowers; one faded bouquet and one brilliant semi-permanent plastic bunch. The smaller print compares garishly painted Buddhas to the ancient stone figures in the same way.
These prints are the most recent examples of my long-term interest in exploring the transient nature of objects of reverence as they decay and fall away from our view.
As a photographic magpie, I collect visual records of stasis and decay.
With this in mind, this artwork showcases an interplay between ancient monochromatic stone figures and ephemeral vibrant floral arrangements.
In Flowers, the composition is balanced so the bouquets, centrally placed, stand out without overwhelming the overall scene. The repetitive patterns of the stone figures add a rhythmic quality and invite viewers to explore the intricate details and individuality of each statue, subtly emphasizing their collective presence. These statues also create a profound sense of history and continuity, serving as a textured backdrop that evokes a calm yet contemplative atmosphere. The inclusion of the colorful flowers inserts a vivid contrast, drawing the eye and injecting life into the scene. This juxtaposition between the grayscale stones and the bright hues of the flowers suggests themes of life, memory, and reverence.
Decay vs life, time vs age, fragility vs stasis; these dichotomies are evident in multiple aspects of this print through comparisons between flowers and stone, between the withered organic flowers and plastic forever-flowers, between weathered stone figures and painted plaster figures, and even between photographic detail and the graphic decay towards the edges and corners of the plate.
The subject, a grotto of small Buddhas in a Japanese temple, indicates a historical dedication to ceremony and the enduring aspects of ritual. Recent additions highlight the continuity of tradition amidst changing times and the cyclical nature of existence. Each figure represents a moment in time, frozen yet part of an ongoing tradition that adapts while maintaining its core essence, suggesting the coexistence of life and memory, or the ephemeral and the eternal.