Stitching the land

Here are some prints I have been working and experimenting on. They are a kind of experimental visual diary as I try to find a language to express my ideas. I have been playing with collographs, mostly intaglio, embossing and stitching. I like the idea of doing things to the prints in the same way as we do things to the landscape - both constructive and destructive - as well as the simply looking at the landscape. These are mostly very small prints apart from the Tenterden prints, and mostly just printed on cartridge paper. It is a bit of a change from my usual textile work which I will document here over time.

Farmscape and Stirlings

Intaglio collograph with stitch

Remnant landscape: Stirlings

Relief collograph, stitch, leaf

Hillside

Intaglio collograph with stitch

Night sky and Stirling Ranges

Intaglio collograph with stitch

 Remnant landscape: hillside

Intaglio and relief collograph and stitched leaf

I have been looking at the farming landscape in reference to our role in clearing the land, what has been lost, the damage large scale clearing has done to the ecoscape, and the difficulty in finding a balance between agricultural needs (food, wool, timber, leather etc), preventing further ecosystem damage (salinity, erosion, loss of soil fertility etc) and finding equitable ways to repair the whole system. The farmer/landholder can't do it all by themselves. Some of my themes are traces, tracks, fences, colonisation, restoration.

Tenterden tracks and traces

Intaglio collograph, stitch and piercings

Tenterden plantation

Intaglio collograph as yet unstitched

The Tenterden prints relate to a property where the owner has replanted areas of unproductive paddock with plantation timbers. the leaves on the printing block are from these trees. There are a number of salt and freshwater swamps/winter lakes he is trying to protect on his property.