Humphries, Clare. 2023. Perspectus Australis (with feet opposite). Linocut print. Print Council of Australia Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.
Photograph by Elizabeth Cole of Clare Humphries's Perspectus Australis (with feet opposite), 2023.
I have been aware of Clare Humphries lunar themed work for a few years, and in particular have wondered at how she achieves her painterly effects with linocuts. Hence, I was intrigued by her latest works on show at the Print Council of Australia Gallery, seen on 15 September 2023.
In the catalogue description of this work (Humphries 2023), the artist explains that she inverted 17th Century celestial maps, which positioned the night sky in the Southern hemisphere as upside down, from the Northern Hemisphere perspective. The two part print is derived from a 1676 publication and locates the viewer close to the Greenwich meridian as a universal reference point for longitude and latitude measurements. While I could read this work as a comment on post-colonialism, I am more interested in the aesthetics and techniques used.
The work has an ethereal indistinct quality, amazing given the binary nature of a linocut print. Its palette is suitably muted, to avoid distraction, and in fact reminds me of the colour scheme for the installation of Reflection Model (Itsukushima) 2014. The percept is a highly resolved work, while the affect is one of envy (Hickey-Moody 2013, 85-86). I wish I knew how to achieve such depth with a linocut.
This work, plus the Rembrandt True to Life exhibition, inspires me to get back into print making, the major focus of my Diploma of Visual Art at RMIT TAFE.
Bibliography:
Hickey-Moody, Anna. 2013. "Chapter 4 Affect as Method: Feelings, Aesthetics ad Affective Pedagogy." In Deleuze and research methodologies edited by Rebecca Coleman and Jessica Ringrose, 79-95. Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh, United Kingdom).
Humphries, Dr Clare. 2023. Sea Sings, Lumen & Wings Realm: Jo Darvall, Martin King and Clare Humphries. edited by Print Council of Australia. : Margin Press.
Comentários