Transformation & Anticipation at Aberdeen Art Gallery
I was recently in Aberdeen Art Gallery and was delighted to see that two of the three prints I made for them were still on show after 2 years. They’re on the 1st floor in the Oot n Aboot exhibition, which brings together pictures and stories of local residents and their shared expeirence of living in the city.
I’ve been asked many times how I made the 3 different prints, so here is a fairly in-depth breakdown of the entire process; from my original application for the Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums (AAGM) commission, to getting the pictures made, framed and on the wall.
The Application
I was initially told about the AAGM Micro-commissions by a studio colleague the day before the deadline. I was in the middle of moving into my new studio and packing for a New Year trip to Crovie the following day. However, as a relative newcomer to Aberdeen and having spent many hours admiring the gallery’s fantastic collection, my interest had been piqued! I downloaded the application form as soon as she left and had a first draft written within an hour.
Applicants were asked to say something about their lived experience in the city, addressing themes that might include social justice, climate change, identity, diversity, representation, well-being and migration, while responding to something that was already part of the AAGM collection. The Micro-commissions could be small in scale and created over a short time period. I thought it could be a challenge to come up with an exciting print-based project that would test some of my recently-acquired printmaking skills, especially in screen and photopolymer printing. And, in the unlikely event my proposal was successful, I might just about manage to complete the rather ambitious project I had put together in my mind, despite having already committed to 2 solo shows and another important commission – all of which were to be fulfilled before the AAGM June deadline.
So the first day of our supposedly relaxing holiday was spent rewriting my application (with considerable editorial help from my patient and very understanding partner) and it was submitted within an hour of the deadline. Then, having never applied for anything like this before, I resignedly put the whole experience down to practice and relaxed for the rest of our trip.
Around 4 weeks later, having forgotten all about my application and while frantically finishing several paintings and working on the final preparations for my early March solo show, I received an email to say my proposal had in fact been successful. My initial elation and surprise at this great news were suddenly followed by a gut-wrenching dread that I might just have overstretched myself! But I do love a challenge and that’s exactly what the following 5 months proved to be!
The Proposal
In selecting a work from the AAGM collection as an initial reference for my own project, John Piper’s powerfully atmospheric painting of Dunnottar Castle immediately sprang to mind. Like many of his works, it perfectly captures with great drama and deceptive simplicity the beauty that can often be found even in a crumbling old building. This got me thinking about how the disintegration of one thing can lead to something new and possibly even more beautiful in its place (a painting in this instance, but also the castle itself).
From here I travelled north in my mind to Aberdeen city centre and thought of the recently opened Union Terrace Gardens and how they have helped to rejuvenate that part of the city.
I then took a short trip across the road to the recently demolished Aberdeen Market and pondered how that has provided an opportunity and also some hope that something better might arise out of the dust and rubble.
I decided to produce a triptych of handmade prints exploring the theme of disintegration in relation to those three well-loved local sites. To bring these ideas into fruition I wanted to use three different printmaking techniques, which would reflect the past, present and the future in their own way.
Here are some work-in-progress images and details that I hope will shed some light on the various processes used in creating each print:
Disintegration
Disintegration, the first piece in the triptych, is a traditional copper-plate etching inspired by John Piper’s painting of Dunnottar Castle.
Beginning to develop areas of tone across the whole image using a combination of aquatint, sugar lift and spit bite methods. Sugar lift involves painting the aquatinted areas where tone is required with a syrupy solution – Camp Coffee in this instance – then coating the whole plate with a protective varnish. The plate is then submerged in hot water and the sugar solution ‘lifts’ off the plate and through the varnish, allowing the exposed areas only to be bitten by acid to create tone. Spit bite combines gum arabic with nitric acid which is applied directly onto those aquatinted areas with a brush. Tonal washes can now be layered up by adding more or less spit bite in a painterly, watercolour-like manner.)
Transformation
The middle piece, Transformation, depicts Union Terrace Gardens and contrasts old and new features now present in the gardens and also in the method used to create the print; in that it combines ancient etching techniques alongside photography.
(‘Calendering’ involves running the paper through an etching press under a steel plate in order to flatten out an irregular or rough surface. This results in a smoother, more photographic final image when printed using this method. Other papers could have been used, but, as this is part of a triptych, it was important to maintain continuity of tone and colour. Using the same paper for all three prints helped with that.)
This was an early failed attempt using plastic as a support for the film. I used steel in the successful print which holds the film better and is more robust during the inking and printing stages.
Chine collé (a technique using coloured tissue which is sandwiched between the ink and the support paper) cut to shape and added to colour the base of the podium and the circular pendant light. The poles were hand finished with watercolour.
Chine collé paper is glued and in place prior to positioning the support paper on top before it is all run through the press. The pressure will adhere the tissue (glue side up) onto the support paper and the ink will be printed from underneath onto both surfaces.
The steel plate used as a support for the photosensitive film was cut to be slightly larger than the final image, creating a debossed ‘frame’.
Anticipation
Anticipation focuses on the Aberdeen Market area and poses the question: what does the future hold for this site? The imagery for this three-colour screen print was created entirely in Photoshop.
Photoshop was used to combine a drone-captured digital image with an interpretation of the Herakut mural from the old Aberdeen Market. Three colour separations were then produced: one combining the main background image and the Old Market mural and one each for the gold question mark and the silver Aberdeen Market text.
Manipulating a photograph of the old Aberdeen Market in Photoshop. Note the removal of the lighthouse and how the hand is now upturned to hold the question mark.
After editing the background, I combined a ‘ghost’ image of the girl and old market along with the gold question mark and text in layers to create 3 colour separations to produce the screens for printing the final piece. In the end I decided to hand-paint the question mark screen separation as I wasn’t satisfied with any of the fonts I tried, including the one seen above.
Testing different colours of ink for the Aberdeen Market text. Silver foil and glitter were also tried at this stage, but I went with a silvery grey to reflect Aberdeen as the Silver City.
The Micro Commission Experience
Working on the AAGM Micro-commission has been a fantastic experience as well as a great opportunity to learn. Not only because it has allowed me to develop and test my skills in traditional and photopolymer etching, as well as screen printing, but the funding that was provided by the Friends of Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums has also enabled me to produce an entirely new stand-alone series of prints that are quite different from anything I have done before. It is also wonderful to know that my triptych has been accessioned into the AAGM permanent collection.
I would advise anyone who is interested in applying to the next round of Micro-commissions to absolutely go for it. This has been a hugely rewarding experience and has shown me what I can achieve under intense pressure.
And finally …
Finally, I would like to say a huge THANK YOU once again to the Friends of Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums for providing the £2500 funding that enabled my Micro Commission, and many thanks also to Shona Elliot and all the staff at AAGM for their excellent support throughout. I’d also like to thank the staff at Peacock Print Studio and, in particular, James Vaas and Struan Hamilton who have both been very generous with their time, patience and expertise throughout this process.
