TWENTY FOUR CARAT
Here, depicted in pixels is the result of a vastly expensive and unpredictable foray into luxury printing. The Slowly Downward Manufactory purchased an significant quantity of gold leaf, with the aim of applying it to huge sheets of paper which we would then silkscreen print. To say that it was a gamble would be an understatement, but after a couple of fraught weeks it looks as if it may have worked. At the time of writing the prints (which number only four) still require hand-finishing, but my hopes are, unusually enough, reasonably high. The print itself will be on show at the forthcoming exhibition in Los Angeles. I can say no more at the present.
- 29th March 2012
Los DOOM
Far, far away, beyond the western rim of the known universe is a magical kingdom, accessible only by a frequently delayed train and a slightly tedious walk along a ring road.
Out there, such things as the screen print above are made. As yet trimmed to size, this photograph shows a print called Hollywood Dooom. It's one of several which are currently 'in production', as they say in Tinseltown.
Or do they? I have no fucking idea whatsoever. It's late. I'm a bit tired and emotional, as they say. Or do they? Et cetera.
Out there, such things as the screen print above are made. As yet trimmed to size, this photograph shows a print called Hollywood Dooom. It's one of several which are currently 'in production', as they say in Tinseltown.
Or do they? I have no fucking idea whatsoever. It's late. I'm a bit tired and emotional, as they say. Or do they? Et cetera.
Los kozo
Above, you see four of the intended twelve prints of the entirety of Lost Angeles suspended above the studio, a full twelve feet in the air. This project has illuminated in many ways my inability to think things through but never so severely and painfully as when it came to hand-burnish the print on to twenty-foot lengths of highly expensive handmade Japanese paper. There is no way to print this work mechanically; ithas to be done by hand, in the most archaic and genuinely manufactured ('made by hand') method possible. The process is almost unbelievably slow, painstaking and delicate. Japanese kozo paper is handmade from the fibres of the bark of the mulberry tree, and is both very strong and very thin. The process of printing an eighteen foot-long linocut onto a twenty-foot roll of it involves pulleys, strings, weights, cardboard tubes, and myself and Mr Grimmer (the printer) wondering when exactly it's all going to go terribly wrong.
It has taken a lot of time and an incalculable amount of effort and expertise (not mine!) to reach this point. My indefatigable printer, Mr Grimmer, has made me promise not to make another incredibly long linocut. And will I listen to him? Will I take heed of his sage advice? Who can tell?
Los jigsaw
This carefully crafted Photoshopped simulation of an theoretical jigsaw puzzle gives the viewer a suggestion of how the Lost Angeles jigsaw will look in real life and actual fact. Uncanny, isn't it, the level of manipulation that can be acheived with only a rough sketch on a napkin and a sample of the artist's DNA?
The idea is that the article will be composed of 192 wooden pieces, encased within a sturdy cardboard box. Something very similar was produced for an exhibition and a series of work I made in 2006. This is a companion piece really; the same number of pieces, the same size, the same jaded cynics behind its conception. All that has changed, essentially, is the image cut into 192 pieces and the number of years left to exist for us all.It is my intention to have several of these whimsical articles produced in time for the upcoming show at Subliminal Projects Gallery. We will see how things go.
- 21st March 2012
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