another open call: i decided to submit to another open call – one that i have been meaning to submit to before but never got the chance. now that i’m in the ‘open call’ frame of mind after my ‘boundaries’ task i think this would be a good year to submit. i have already sent the application form last week and prepared the bitmaps so today i spent working on the print. this is the third attempt at printing this image as i had lots of technical issues with my emulsion and screens – i think i didn’t mix my diazo correctly. anyway i got a new emulsion and degreased the screen so had a much better day in the studio printing today. it doesn’t leave much time to frame the work (which it has to be for submission) but hopefully that can get sorted quickly now that it is ready .
the image: i have been working on my contextual study recently, thinking about the compound eye and my stereo work as a framing for the landscape which questions the gendered single fixed perspective on the landscape. my initial idea was to print a stereo view – which i did attempt but the emulsion broke down. this gave me time to rethink the dual image and i like the way 2 transparencies lined up in 3s or 4s rather than 2 frames – like an analogue roll of film. i also wanted to play around with near and far perspective (again aligned to gender and landscape) as i did in one of my video ‘screen saver’ shorts and apply this to my print. the idea of rolling and changing perspective seemed to suggest sky as landscape and i thought this could make an interesting image – movement of sky caught in still frames. i worked on the image by heightening the colours – mainly because the CMYK process can flatten colour and screen printing really lends itself to a heightened play of colour – it is an image of landscape not landscape afterall. so to show the development and process, here are some images of my initial attempts followed by today’s printing.
first attempt: CMYK separation for stereo view – emulsion broke down
second attempt: CMYK separation for three frame – emulsion broke down again
third day printing: CMYK separation for three frame – finished edition
CMYK separations
final edition of 8
further reflection: throughout all of this process i have been aware of the audience for this work – the audience of jurors who may select the work, the audience of those who may visit the exhibition, the audience of other artists who may also exhibit. audience has really been a conscious part of this process from start to finish. i wonder how did this influence my making – i continued to work on the framing of the landscape which i do instinctively but was there a second voice in my head helping my to reject or accept decisions along the making process? i think that the opportunity to reach an audience did help me cope with the technical difficulties i was having – spurring me on to try again (and again) to reach the deadline of the open call that i was committed to. i think the next step now is to continue this process in some way with no particular audience or submission in mind and see what happens.
elaine crowe 