Opening of Which Way North at the Great North Museum: Hancock

Thursday night was the VIP preview of the exhibition 'Which Way North' at the Great North Museum: Hancock. 

I felt rather out of place, but ever so honoured to have been commissioned to make a work for such an important museum and for it to be amongst such an amazing selection of objects and artworks by artists such as Ryan Gander, Andy Lomas and Barbara Hepworth.

After all, how often is my work going to be sandwiched between Helen Sharman’s Zvezda Sokol space suit and Damien Hirst's shark (Heaven)!

https://getnorth2018.com/events/to-the-moon-and-back/

New species of seaweed

Translucent rice paper

I am wary about using the same material too often, and wanted to find a replacement for the seaweed that I used along with the skimmer to form a bowl-like shape which balances inside the skimmer from which it takes its shape.

                                                                                                         
The rice paper is an interesting alternative to the seaweed. The transparency allows the intricate gold mesh to be partially seen through the 'bowl', and its muted colour goes well with the neutral browns, cream cloth and natural colour of the lining paper.

Gridded seaweed

Now I have printed over 121 pieces of seaweed, I have enough (and a few extra) to form a grid on the large piece of material I have in the studio. Although I have in no way decided to display them on the sheet on the wall, or indeed on the sheet at all, I wanted to have enough to allow this to be a possibility. I can now test out different forms of display, such as if they were in a column spanning the wall and floor, occupying the space rather  like the role of paper currently does.

Currently they are placed in a grid with no specific reason why one piece is next to the another, other than that they were printed, left to dry, and moved from the print room into the studio at a similar time. Therefore I want to move the pieces around within the grid themselves, forming different relationships between them and seeing the arrangement as a composition.

I also want to try mixing the laser cut seaweed amongst the printed seaweed.

Rather than keeping the seaweed flat as sheets, I could try moulding them into sculptural forms. The sheet of seaweed itself is made of strands of seaweed that have been mushed together to form a sheet, so I could do a similar thing and apply the seaweed as one would with papier mache, using water to stick the pieces together.

Laser cutting seaweed and rice paper

I have been using the laser cutter to engrave and cut seaweed and rice paper. I scanned the prints that I made on white paper, and then did some editing in Photoshop to create the file for the laser cutter.

My initial experiment was to engrave seaweed, which had the affect of creating what seemed like a lighter tone of green in the places where the laser had engraved it. It wasn't as I had imagined, and smelled horrid!

I then learned how to turn my tonal scans into line drawings using the laser cutting software, and then laser cut a few different patterns from seaweed.

I also tried laser cutting the same design into rice paper.

When the rice paper is laser cut, one can see the slightly browned edges of the cut from the heat of the laser. This helps frame the little shapes on this translucent and subtle material.

I really enjoy the delicacy of the laser cut seaweed. I could display them amongst the printed seaweed.

Wednesday's prints

After another day in the print room I have now printed onto over 121 pieces of seaweed, and therefore have enough to form a grid on the large piece of fabric that I have.  It may be that I do not attach the seaweed to the fabric, but may pin the sheets directly onto the wall or lay them on the floor, but now I think I have enough to test out the options with.

I am now going to try to laser cut seaweed and engrave different surfaces with the patterns from the prints on seaweed.

Tuesday's prints

I've had another productive and fun day in the inking up etching room printing onto seaweed with liquorice allsorts.

Here are a selection of the prints I made today.

I've done a few prints onto white paper because I want to try engraving the patterns onto seaweed and other materials. In order to use the laser cutter to do this, I need to prepare the files correctly, and so will scan the prints on white paper and then work with them in Photoshop before they can be used by the laser cutter.

Filling the seaweed grid with prints

Shades of grey

I am continuing to print on pieces of nori, with my intention being to cover a whole sheet with a grid of printed nori. I have no set composition at this stage, but am focusing on individual elements which will later be shifted about in order to create a whole. 

The patterns on the nori vary from piece to piece, sometimes using a range of  shape of stamps on one sheet, and at other times using just one stamp.

In order to add a bit of variety to the prints, I am using a range of light / medium greys. 

The nori grid

I've moved the sheet onto the floor into my old studio next to printmaking, and have created a grid of the nori seaweed that I am going to print on. I will then be able to move the individual nori sheets into the etching room for printing, and then back to the grid once printed on.

I've amassed a collection of sweets that make interesting marks and, along with a couple of bits of foam tubing, will use these to print onto the nori.

Reduce, reduce, reduce

In preparation for my crit, I began editing in my studio, reducing the amount in the space, and beginning to turn it from a studio and into more of a gallery space. I need to remember not to cram the studio, and to give each work enough space to breathe. I also need to vary the scale of the work so everything isn't on the same level.

With this in mind, I introduced a large piece of fabric, and hung it from one of the pipes going round the space. This size of fabric has a presence, and contrasts with the smaller collages.

Now I am deciding what to do with the fabric, and whether to print directly onto it, or to put the seaweed prints onto the fabric. I would like to try both options, but don't want my space to be dominated by similar prints. 

I also need to consider the type of design / pattern on the seaweed. I want for them to make a whole composition rather than have a self contained image on each separate sheet of seaweed.