Rhianna Catt

Through 3 sessions in Intaglio, I have managed to go through the process of photo-etching and throughout the process I made several decisions in hope to get the best out of the image and idea.

The first decision was choosing between zinc and steel. I choose the later. For several reasons, one being price, Steel is very cheap at only a couple of pounds a plate. However also because of it’s texture it holds a background tone, and I thought as I want the background images to be as static as possible, this would help achieve this look.

The next decision was how am I going to achieve tone in the plate/image. I had three choices, either bitmap in the form of a half tone screen, a diff dither, or by threshold. We printed each option out in the correct scale and also had a second option within diff dither with an even finer dither, but in the end I choose the bitmap by half tone screen. This is because the image was the most static, and that matched again with the theme and concept of the work.

Next, in the first session I filed the plates and degreased. I couldn’t continue the process due to the fact the photo-sensitive emulsion takes an hour to cure, and then expires/deactivates in 24 hours and I wasn’t coming back for a couple of days, so we left it at preparing the plates. We only started with two of my images, because after seeing the proofs and the outcome I might not actually like the outcome, however we didn’t just want to rely on one image for me to make the decision from.

In my next 3 hour session, I coated the plates, I then waited an hour for them to cure. I then waited half an hour while they cooled down. I then exposed the plates and developed them in a soda crystal solution. Before drying them, and stopping the backs but also the fronts out where the large area of the image wasn’t to make sure they wouldn’t accidentally etch.

The next day, today, we made the decision not to aquatint the plates, because they are steel they are more likely to hold the tone anyway and not open bite. But also if we aquatinted we might of accidently disrupted the pattern of the fine dots. So we decided to first try with one plate. We chose the coat hanger, because it was the simpler of the two images.

We initially etched for 9 minutes before looking at the etch under a lens, specifically where the blue emulsion, to see whether it was etched enough but also to make sure we weren’t etching the detail away. We then etched for another minute, before checking again, and then I made the choice to etch it for another minute and a half, and we checked again and we were starting to see the edges of the blue emulsion etch away and then it was time to stop, and begin the pain-staking task of cleaning off the stop out varnish and the emulsion.

After this we proofed this plate, made sure everything was okay before repeating the process with the other plate, and printing a proof of that plate. With the proofs I only inked the area of the image, as it wasn’t essential to ink the rest, one to not waste ink or time.

After lunch, I begun to cut my plates down to size of 25cmx18cm. This size was chosen when editing my photocopies as I printed the images off at A5 and A4 and the first seemed too small and the second too large. So I settled in the middle. I used the metal guillotine, a machine which terrifies me, as I am scared of ruining my plates, and I have avoided using it for two years. Today I overcame that fear and cut one of my plates down with no mistake.

I then inked the images up again to take proofs of them with the red thread, we tried two techniques, one placing the inked up wool on top of the plate, and the other printing the image, then passing it through the press again with just the wool. I choose the first option to continue with as it was more graphic vibrant and took control over the image which relates again to my topic and theme.

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These prints are not perfect. The wool isn’t evenly inked. Which I don’t mind the underinked parts but I do the over inked parts. So when I print them properly next week, I am going to ink up slightly heavier and then run them through the press on their own, to get off the excess ink, and after experimenting with the technique on Wednesday I have learned to spot the print before it has the perfect inking level.

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Originally I was thinking about to make every print in an edition the same, and pressing wool into a soft ground plate, however after experimenting with inking up wool and printing it directly onto paper I decided this was a better way to go.

This is because I have very static images, which will be in the form of photo etchings and this is more free and has movement, which relates to my topic, as the static objects represent me, or the abused and the string represent the oppressor and abuser, they have choice, they do what they like.

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This is just going to be quick post, just to update on the still lives, I have been preparing ready to print. I have decided to keep it simple and just photocopy everything.

So far I have scanned:

1. A packet of cigarettes – reasons mentioned in a previous post
2. Coat Hanger – Control over clothes
3. A necklace – I used to wear this necklace every day, it has charms on it representing different parts of myself, for instance a paint palette, and a chefs hat, this is to generally represent control over me as a person, and who I am
4. Painkillers Packet – The idea of pain, and control over how one feels
5. Wallet – Financial Control
6. Keys – Control over what one does and where they go.

With the idea that your work will communicate to a specific audience,
what questions are you asking that audience?

I am asking them to emote. To think about the topic, and how it would feel in that scenario. To ask them has any moment of their lives have they felt powerless and controlled, and taking that and magnifying that feeling.

Who is your audience?

My audience is the general public, the everyday person. It is hard to narrow down because it is work which should and could been seen by anyone. It is for the public domain.

When the work is seen on its own, and you are not there to back it up,
what do you want people to think about when they look at your work?

I think titling and naming my pieces will be important, especially as I have moved away from a more literal approach, and continuing to experiment with the idea of the red thread/wool being a symbol and metaphor for power and control.

I want the images to make people think and reivaluate their own ideas of domestic abuse. I when then to see something, a memory in themselves, where to can feel, even a snippet of what it is like to be in a relationship, abusive, toxic and manipulative.

I don’t wish to spell it out for them so clearly that the problem is just own and they are just viewer watching in. But also thinking about this mask these relationships have, and how they are nearly never outwardly projecting what they are actually like. I want them to have snippet into the world of an abusive relationship.

How will people benefit from your work?

I am wanting to raise awareness for an issue which has become such a crisis, even before Covid, but it has gotten worse and made it more visible. But statistics and even the news reports we have received through-out the pandemic, doesn’t make people view it as their problem to fight. However I wish for my work to emote with the viewer and link the issue the feelings and emotion behind it, and what people experience during these traumatic experiences. Maybe wanting to promote donations to Women’s violence charities, but also make survivors know and feel like they are not alone.

In a dream scenario, how would you like to financially benefit from
this work? For example, would you like a gallery to sell it?
A publication house to market it? An advertising agency to
commission you? An illustration agency to represent you? You choose.

I would love my work to be able to be exhibited in galleries, not just to sell but obviously that is always helpful and would be the dream scenario, but also for exposure, but not for myself but issue I am trying to be an activist against, and raise awareness for.

But also creating work for charities to promote donations.

Tracey Emin’s method of working and where she draws her ideas from are incredibly pertinent and important to me.

Her work is very emotive and emotional and draws on her own experiences, they are very expressive, and become a mirror for the viewer to see themselves within her art. She has experienced an incredible amount of trauma, and instead of her work describing those events, it seems to more describe the emotional turmoil caused by these events.

Her work is auto-biographical however it goes beyond that, it is feminist in nature and doesn’t just document her life by the life of many women, and I think that is what makes her resonate with such a wide audience.

Even though I am not a huge fan of her work, personally, I want to continue to research why her work emotes and resonates, and how even though not being direct and literal we still gain the idea and emotion behind the pieces.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/tracey-emin-2590

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/gilbert-george-1163

While thinking about artists who in general have inspired me over the course of the last couple of years, at first I came out blank. However I had this burst of an image which really stuck with me after a CTS session in my first year, and really relates to what I am doing now, and how when seeing this work even though its a completely different style to mine, however the process and the conceptual work behind is very similar to myself.

I am really wanting to pursue an autoethnographic practice, using my images as a mirror to make viewer the emote, and explore the wider problems of the wider world around them. Gilbert and George did this with their experience, within their community, and my community of LGBT when the AIDS crisis came to a head in the late 20th century.

They used their personal experience of loss, from the epidemic, and loosing so many people around you from your own community, and transformed this into art, making the viewer emote with a problem, which many people would say ‘not my problem’ because it doesn’t affect them and their community but it also affected a community which people didn’t have much care or like for.

But also the use of print inspires me with their work. In the era of becoming an artist hugely entailed being in a gallery and if I remember correctly from my CTS sessions, print in this form wasn’t common. However the use of print, in the area of fine art and contemporary, is important, and is a useful tool. Because it makes the work accessible and in an era of homophobia, it’s hard to make the problem of aid relate to a wider audience, however we all interact with print on a daily basis, well not so much now in the age of screens, but in the 80s-90s it makes it stand out but also feels on a level same with every day people.

Following the 50 postcard task last week, I have decided to take forward this idea of the red wool/thread as a metaphor and symbolism for power and control. Above is an image I have experimented with, by taking a coat/clothes hanger, and photocopying it and overlaying another photocopy of wool. My idea with this is to use photo etching for the coat hanger, using a steel plate, therefore I will get background tone, but also steel plates are cheap. Also even though I have done hard ground etching, plus a lot of photopolymer, this will be a new technique for me, and I always want to learn something new.

But then I have two options for the wool, either taking the wool and inking it directly before printing it, or I can take the wool and press it into a soft ground plate, and create an etching that way, either on steel or zinc, and print it that way. This way I will always get the same composition with each print I do, however requires another step in the process.

The next image is still I work in process, I have finished the hand painting yet, however I took a photo of it so far and overlaid another wool photocopy. The idea of this was one taking a small powerful snippet of my previous painting, however I added the addition of the cigarette.

Before my relationship, I hardly smoked, on occasion at work when I was stressed, and sometimes socially however never really ever brought a packet, and if I did it could last a few weeks. When my abusive relationship started so did the upkeep of the habit of smoking and as the relationship got worse, the more I smoked. It was my escapism. Within a couple of months I was smoking 4-5 a day, and by the end of the relationship, also an extremely stressful job, I was nearly on 10-15. In the last couple of years I have been able to cut that down, I even ended up quitting for nearly 6 months last year but that was mainly due to jaw surgery, and started back up again when I moved back to London, started working again, university, general stress and being with my boyfriend who smokes. At the moment I smoke between 5-9 a day. However I am in the process of quitting, and everyday I am smoking less, and hopefully this week I will be able to quit. But because of my relationship with it, and how I associate it with relieving of stress and escapism of stressful environments, every time I get stressed or anxious I reach for a cigarette. Sometimes I ask myself whether it is the right time to stop smoking with my mental health, and even if it is only a phycological response to needing the action of smoking for relief at the moment due to the amount of stress on myself should I put myself through anything more.

Following on from my previous work on taking phrases and lines of which I was told during my abusive relationship. I started to work on an image trying to portray how the words but also the relationship made me feel, but also to give the viewer a insight into the world inside these relationships which is usually so hard to see.

I wanted to take the ripped up paper, typographic collage I completed before and use that texture and feel in this image, because it felt like it gave the right insight into how these words affect one person and how they come part of who you are. I also have more ideas how I can further this idea also. I also wanted to show the shadowy figure, that even though you might of escaped, or they might just not be physically with you at one moment, they sort of sit with you and you feel the weight on your shoulders. Which was a similar idea with the read thread, and how you feel your life is tied up with theirs and it becomes very complicated, but also the feeling on entrapment.

I want to look at taking this into print specifically photopolymer, and after talking to Ling and Kath in printmaking, they are wanting me to explore multi-plates, using photopolymer as a base, but maybe using steel plates to add additional areas of colour, and they think that is what I should explore next. Which I agree with. I need to get over my nerves and get the confidence to push myself within the area of print, and create something different and be challenged.

I am struggling with the idea of how to incorporate scale into my project. I feel like it is important to talk about the scale of the issue, and I think it would be incredibly powerful, but at the moment I have no idea of how to do that without using typography and statistics. But also how to incorporate that with the style of my work and my paintings and prints.

The idea of these sketches which I wish to explore more, is the idea of things are not what they look like in relationships like these. So the idea is I would look like a loving relationship on the outside, but as you open the imahe out. There would be flaps, so the image folds open, another image/story is told. I haven’t got far with this idea yet, and just have these very basic sketches.