Porous
£150.00
POROUS
Limited edition artists book hand-bound with hand-printed etchings
13/20 - number 13 in edition of 20
(number 1 in edition purchased by British Library, Modern Contemporary Collection)
Linen coated hard cover
Stitch bound - printed back and front
8 pages + blank inside covers
8 etchings total - 1 per page
Etchings are aquaforte, sugar lift, aquatint, soft ground incorporating colour tissue (Chine-collé)
single word texts are etched on shaped plates
printed using zinc plates
book size 16.5 x 16.5 cm
page size 16 x 16 cm
Porous refers to the filtering of a feminine aesthetic that runs throughout the book. Using basic shapes within the images – spiral, triangle, circle, square - my aim was to transform the masculinity of the four elements.
I used various materials to imprint patterns into the softground – materials that relate to ideas of feminism, liberation and empowerment. These include lace from old dresses and, more importantly, tights, significant as they derive from hose originally worn by European men, subsequently appropriated by women.
Materials from women’s fashion are also a reference to the clothes factories local to me at the time but now gone (around Fontill Road, North London) which were predominantly Greek and Turkish.
The single words, produced with photo etching, were suggested by Frances Presley as counterpoints to the imagery to create additional meanings within the piece.