INTO THE LIGHT: IN-sight PRINT MAKERS

Into the Light is an exhibition by IN-sight Print makers at the Museum in the Park, Stroud. On now until 28 October. I am delighted to be part of this group of talented artists.

Into the Light is IN-sight’s third exhibition together but our first themed show. 

We were given a rare opportunity, as a group of artists access into the Museum in the Parks stores to discover obscure artifacts and hidden treasures. 

We have brought part of these collections into the light and used printmaking in its widest forms to make diverse and contemporary objects. There are 6 of us in IN-sight and our approach to printmaking is varied. Here are edited highlights of the exhibition with each print makers statement about their pieces on show. 

Jane Sasanow a multidisciplinary print maker and book artist takes inspiration from many sources. Social history, materials, objects, man made and natural environments.

From the Museum stores Jane selected a box of cogs and shuttles used in textile production as the stimulus for a new body of work.

Wendy Rhodes is an artist, educator and researcher who explores drawing and etching through an experiential connection with place. 

For this exhibition Wendy took inspiration from the engravings found in a rare book published in 1797 by Samuel Lysons. The document illustrates the excavation of a Roman mosaic known as the Orpheus pavement (AD 325), found in a churchyard in Woodchester. Intrigued by the notion of buried history Wendy regularly visited the site to record the place as it appears today. 

The work shown here represents a palimpsest of place; from the ground plans of the Roman villa to the remains of the priory, which was built on the site, and the imprint of the 1973 excavations.

 The processes of etching and drawing will reflect a layering and erasure of histories; describing a narrative of this place. For Wendy, drawing is at the core of a reciprocally informed etching practice; concepts investigated through plein air sketchbook work are given flight through the action of ferric chloride on copper. 

Katie Wallis designs and creates products for interiors and accessories, appropriating her own colourful, symmetrical and geometric patterns, Her work is usually inspired by pollinators such as bees and bats, but also peacocks. So it’s not so surprising that, on this occasion, she has been looking at the museum store’s collections of butterflies. 

She regularly uses a range of contemporary printing techniques including screen printing and laser cutting for her decorative mirror surrounds. 

This time she has been inspired particularly by the British Butterflies to design her first digitally printed wallpapers to sit along side some coordinating lampshade designs also digitally printed on fabric. She has designed and made a special laser cut and screen printed mirror surround for a convex mirror, which includes all the butterflies depicted in her wallpapers. 

I feel that the best stories are often found in the background, interesting things are hidden away and this is the case with museums. Like icebergs there is more beneath the surface than on show. 

I concentrated on the entomological collections of the Museum in the Park and examined the delicate, vulnerable stored moth collections. 

I then developed a series of collagraphs, gum arabic transfer and eco prints on silk that describes how they are displayed and conserved. The thin printed silk echoes the delicate nature of these specimens and hints at the difficulty of preserving ephemeral collections. This work is certainly a new departure for me and very much at the experimental stage. This project gave me and my fellow artists a creative challenge.

For Sarah Salaman the museum collection was a plethora of objects and artifacts left behind by previous generations, but the individuals who utilised, and valued them have become invisible.

Sarah made large scale mixed media drawings and mono prints inspired by vessels and tableware, creating an intriguing interplay between fiction and observation. Vessels and tableware combined with archival photographs, objects and the individual where re-united. 

The artwork arises from a passion for social history, and professional experience designing sets and costume requiring detailed historical, visual and literary research.

Nature is the inspiration and source for Coo Geller’s work. Drawn to a particular natural material, perhaps a piece of moss, she notices a tiny aspect of it and communicates these often overlooked qualities.

“I want to bring a sense of wonderment to my work, to give value to each little thing, and show its importance.”

New work for this exhibition has been inspired by The Museum in the Park’s collection of nests, birds’ eggs and records dating from the 1870s. The process of making focuses on considering the attributes of each egg: colour, shape, markings, size, fragility, strength. The record book entitled The Data of Collection of Birds Eggs…  lists, in beautiful script, almost two hundred entries detailing eggs taken from nests:

IN-sight is a group of individual practitioners brought together by a passion for exploring and extending the possibilities of printmaking.

This creative group was formed 6 years ago after they all studied for an MA in multi-disciplinary printmaking at the University of the West of England. 

Thank you to The Museum in the Park for allowing and supporting this exhibition.