Andy Goldsworthy – sculptor and photographer:

There is a quote from Andy Goldsworthy that links to the concept that I would like to explore with my print work. I want to explore how we as humans are connected with nature and are part of it, and why we don’t think of ourselves as a part of the natural world, but separate to it.

“We often forget that we are nature. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.” – Andy Goldsworthy.

Andy Goldsworthy is an English sculptor, photographer and environmentalist who produces sculptures and land art in natural and urban settings. His sculptures are precise geometric forms, eventually decaying and changing form with nature and he uses photography to preserve the original works. His work “Storm King Wall” is one of his most well known pieces and it symbolises the flow of energy and is surrounded by trees, so that it’s responding with the environment instead of dividing it like walls usually do. Materials are vital to his work, and he works with all natural materials. For example: ice, water, leaves, sticks, wood, stone, grass, and anything else that’s available at the sight. The place may also be a key part of his piece as it connects his manmade work with the nature that’s already there. He doesn’t change the places he creates in, rather he expresses the energy that he feels from the place and forms a connection between his piece and what was there before.

Andy Goldsworthy, Storm King Wall, 1997-1998.

Other artists:

Claire Burchell:

I really like the way Claire Burchell overlaps colours, especially since the colours blend together to make another. There’s something very careful about her work, but the use of layers and overlapping also makes the outcome somewhat unpredictable.

Faith Ringgold, The Sunflowers Quilting Bee at Arles, 1996.

Alexi Marshall – printmaker:

https://www.instagram.com/aleximjmarshall/?hl=en

Alexi Marshall is a London based artist who works in print, fabric, drawing and embroidery, investigating themes of spirituality, sexuality and womanhood. I’m inspired by her work because of the way she presents her prints onto large pieces of fabric and presents them together as a unity in her exhibits.

Alexi Marshall solo exhibition – Cursebreaker, 18 September 2021 – 16 January 2022, Daniel Benjamin Gallery:

I really like the way her prints all somehow connect to each other and how she’s fitted several pieces on one large tapestry to be hung up for a clear head-on view.

https://www.db-gallery.com/post/alexi-marshall-solo-exhibition-cursebreaker

Alexi Marshall, Who Do We Tell When The Bees Are All Dead, 2020, Linotype print and embroidery on fabric, 200 x 300 cm.

Textile exhibitions:

For my printmaking class, I’ve started printing onto fabrics. The reason for this is because I like the way I’m able to manipulate the materials’ position and how the viewer sees it because it’s flexible. For example, in an exhibition, I could hang up the work and use a fan to gently blow the fabric to give it movement and allow the viewer see the light land on it in different places. I also think that it adds to the naturalism of the work because it’s unnatural for something to be completely stationary; if my work is a sunflower for example, then it would move naturally outside in the wind and would “interact” and blend in with the other plants. I like the idea of having the exhibition space as a natural setting with plants and possibly grass. I would want the room to be an immersive experience. These are some examples of textile fabric works being exhibited in gallery spaces that I like:

Textiles Designed With Warp, Woof and Wit at MoMA - The New York Times
Textiles designed with Warp, Woof, and Wit at MoMA.
Past Exhibitions | The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum | The George Washington University
Past textile exhibits at the George Washington Museum.
Whitworth Gallery Textiles Exhibitions Review | Cari Morton Studio
Whitworth gallery textiles exhibition.

Printmaking contextual development:

For my next prints I’m going to think about adding a level of negativity and ambiguity from a close up point of view, and keep the positive aspect from a further away viewpoint; so that the viewer’s interpretation changes from when they’re far away to when they’re close up to the piece. I want this to be subtle, but still obvious enough for the viewer’s interpretation to be varied. By doing this, it’ll give my work extra depth and also allow me to work back into my prints with thread or stitching, for example.