The moon, the moon!

Beyond the Moon, my solo show in Aberystwyth, finished last month, but I was compelled to make one final print, of the moon itself. Originally I was inspired by Ariosto’s epic poem “Orlando Furioso” from 1516, where the moon is portrayed as a place where all things wasted on earth are kept and treasured: unnoticed emotions, unredeemable time and money, broken promises and unanswered prayers.

The moon thus symbolises hope and forgiveness, and allows potential realities to take form. I wanted to make a moon that shines with a soft light, and that gives off an atmosphere of ambiguity.

I work in a cross disciplinary way, so the image started as a linocut, which I photographed and manipulated in photoshop. From these I made multiple separations which were printed digitally and made into screens. One of the advantages of screenprinting for me is the ease of layering translucent colour. I always make more colour separations than I need, and often spend a huge amount of time colour trial proofing all the combinations like a mad scientist, invariably til 2 or 3 in the morning.

I don’t have enough computer knowledge to be able to plan the print on the computer, but anyway even if I did know how, I don’t think it would be as fun as getting messy in the print room. As a result, most of my silkscreen prints take shape during the colour trial stage. This time round, there were proofs that resembled aging cheese, some semi-fluorescent greenish moons, and pinkish moons that really looked like the sun. Finally the classic colours of navy blue, black and a kind of shimmery pearlescent lilac won the day.

It’s a 3 colour silkscreen on somerset satin paper and measures 50 x 75.5 cm. I’m hoping to take it with me to Portland Oregon for the summer, as I have been invited to take part in a new collaborative residency with the Lan Su Chinese classical garden, with a show opening there in August!

 

Liege Printmaking festival

Before last week’s visit to Liege, all I knew about Belgium was that it was a country famous for beer, chips, chocolate and Tintin… Now I know that it should be also renowned for super warm and friendly people, grand old buildings, and the Liege printmaking festival!

The station itself is a wonderful piece of architecture by Santiago Calatrava which was rebuilt in 2009. Covered partially in snow from a heavy fall 2 days ago, the light filtering down was like some complex binary pattern.

You can even see the rocket from Tintin to the far right of this shot…

The gallery where the international printmaking festival show is held is in the Musee des Beaux Arts, Liege, or BAL for short. It’s very central, just set back from the river by less than 100 metres, and a very grand large space.

I was pleased that they had hung so many of my prints. It is the first time that 28 prints  from the series Shift have been shown on one wall like this, and the projected animation was on the facing wall, which made a good link between the two.

This festival has been held every other year on nine previous occasions, and selects a mix of artists from all over the world. This year, I was the only artist from the UK, outnumbered by those from Brazil, Congo and China. Artists from Japan, Poland, Romania and the US were there too, alongside a larger number of French, Belgian, Canadian and German artists.

The uniqueness of the event was the mix of events in the museum as well as a satellite festival of art events with openings on the following days. We had an evening reception, and then, the following morning, breakfast in the museum with pain au chocolat, strong black coffee AND chocolate truffle eggs!!! This was a great opportunity to look at the work again and share a chocolate high with the other artists.

For a TV report of the event in French please see the following link

http://www.rtc.be/reportages/262-general/1454329-neuvieme-biennale-internationale-de-gravure-a-liege

And for a lot more photos of the show itself please see my facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151307272056481.1073741825.566891480&type=1&l=28665e1192

I found myself exploring the city on my own the following day. The city is ancient, with narrow walled cobbled streets that wander uphill. It is a place that feels full of secrets.

I had bought a grey furry squirrel hat in Brussels in a flea market, which looked like half an arctic fox had also been incorporated into the brim, and played around with the idea of juxtaposing my modern day tourist self with this item from the past…

In the evening we all gathered in the Musee d’Ansembourg which was a glorious palatial mansion along the Feronstree, still decorated with old clocks, stucco ceilings and these coloured glass windows.

I was inspired by the dark mirrors and the glossy floor reflecting the afternoon light. I think it would make a wonderful venue for new narratives.

Another day of wandering the streets and I went up and down the montagne de beuren (the hill with a view) ending up at a small convent like gallery called the Musee de la vie Wallonne, where there was a great show about murder: the perpetrators, reasons, repetition, punishments and depiction in the media. My favourite section was the bit on facial recognition from prior to the discovery of unique fingerprinting: here are photos of ears and noses categorised into different types…

All in all, a lot of food for thought.

 

Preston flip book workshop and show

At the beginning of March I went to Preston (just 2.5 hours north from London on the super fast train) to teach a workshop with 16 kids in the Harris Museum. It was a flip book workshop, based on the animation Shift that I’d made out of 40 linocut prints, which was in the show IMPRESSIT at that same museum.

I asked the 14 year olds to split into groups and think up story boards for something that could be told in 16 frames. They came up with an interesting mix of violence and humour, but that was just the beginning of the discussion. We ended up using a model- Heather Chou- my volunteer from the University of Central Lancashire (actually she is from Texas) who lay in the centre of the room so that we could draw her and make her spin in the book. Every student had a couple of hours to draw and carve a lino block, and then an afternoon to experiment with printing. They all got hungry at an inconvenient time (for the workshop) and ran away for a macdonalds in the middle of carving. Despite this we made an interesting book together!

For a really good description of the workshop, along with an animation of the flip book that we made, please see the blog entry that Heather wrote here

http://harrisimpressit.tumblr.com/post/44640359589/1-march-2013-wuon-gean-hos-linoleum-workshop

Here is my work in the show, IMPRESSIT, with the animation playing on a screen next to the dresses which have been printed in pairs.

After the workshop, the show in the Museum opened with several speeches and a bit of alcohol.

I loved the mix of printed works, and the diversity of the printmaking on display. The following is a small selection of the works…

Tracy Hill with her work- on Kozo paper, printed and with hand cut patterns reflecting the topography of the Mersey river

Katherine Jones- sculptural books and prints

Pete Clarke, who works in print and text

Georg Gartz who likes to make unconventional settings for his printed works, involving building strange structures and sheds.

Oran O Reilly who makes collage pop hybrid works on glowing perspex

And Gerry Baptist who makes effortless pop cynicism

The show is on until 27 April 2013.

Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Market Square,Preston, PR1 2PP 

For more information please see

http://www.harrismuseum.org.uk/comingsoon/157-impressit-te-art-of-printmaking

 

Oryx Inflight Magazine

East London Printmakers is where I make most of my prints, as well as teaching and working as a technician there. Qatar airways inflight magazine, called Oryx, features our studio for the March issue, and they’ve chosen my New Year card for the article, as well as writing about my animations. If anyone would like to buy the new year print which is featured, please get in touch.

To view the online version of the article, see the following http://www.oryxinflightmagazine.com/insight/insight-laura-griffith-jones.html

I look forward to welcoming Qataris to our studio soon!!

 

9th Berlin International Director’s Lounge

My stop-frame animation, Costanza , with music by Baron Mordant, has been selected for the 9th Berlin International Director’s Lounge, and will be screened on Monday 11th Feb at 8.30 pm. I wish I could go, as the programme looks full of exciting short films. Click on the following link to view the animation on youtube.

 

Closing event: Beyond the Moon

 

Feb 2nd, 12-2 pm

 

Closing event

You are cordially invited to join me for the closing event for Beyond the Moon show in the School of Art Gallery and Museum, Aberystwyth, on Saturday 2nd Feb from 12-2pm.

I’ll be signing a special exhibition copy of the catalogue, and there will be new music composed in response to the prints, which will be playing without human intervention on the grand piano in the centre of the room.

For more information or to RSVP please contact the curator, Neil Holland, on neh@aber.ac.uk

Would be wonderful if you could make it!