Artwork

STRANGE PLACES (i): Mesozoic Karoo

2023 Competition entry

Detail
Tags

Kay Fourie

Details:
Not Signed
Oil based ink on HahneMuhle paper
40 x 50 / framed 54 x 62cm
R5125.00
Description:
Whenever I throw a non-recyclable item into the dustbin, I wonder whether it could end up in the stomach of a whale. I try to rationalize these thoughts: surely that’s impossible - the nearest coast is 600 km away from my home. But where does it go? Then recently someone reminded me that the Karoo, where I live, was once an inland sea. According to the geological timescale this would have been during the Mesozoic period, and fossil remains found in surrounding hills are evidence of this prehistoric geography. This pelagic backdrop provided the inspiration for my artwork Mesozoic Karoo.

For this work, I employed the reduction linocut technique, which uses only one tile, its surface cut away in stages. The image is created by carving, inking, and printing the tile onto the paper throughout these stages, so that layers of ink are overprinted, working from light to dark. Eventually, for the final and darkest colour, almost no surface is left uncarved. This print comprises eight carved layers and eleven colours, but along the way, the different colours and tonal values also interact with one another in building up the image. The over-layering of colours can be unpredictable, and this printmaking process is addictive and as suspenseful as binge-watching a television series. But unlike binge-watching, although while making art I escape from reality, on my return I have a tangible witness to my time away.

Often when working, I become so absorbed in the art-making process that, once the work is completed, I am struck by how it has taken on a life of its own. With Mesozoic Karoo, my intention was to depict a dreamscape, a surreal adaptation of the Karoo landscape to transport the viewer to another time and place. My surprise once this work was created was its ambiguity, how the sea seemed to be suspended like a tent above the land, and how the Karoo land gave the impression of a seafloor where the viewer could imagine oceanic shadows floating slowly out of the picture plane. Could the viewer be encouraged to dive visually into a place where irreconcilable worlds meet?

The imagery of Mesozoic Karoo represents my first dive into the surreal, an early exploration of concepts such as dreams, unconscious longings, untold stories, and shadowy archetypes.

Paper Ink

Detail
Tags

Kay Fourie

Details:
Not Signed
Oil based ink on HahneMuhle paper
40 x 50 / framed 54 x 62cm
R5125.00

Description:
Whenever I throw a non-recyclable item into the dustbin, I wonder whether it could end up in the stomach of a whale. I try to rationalize these thoughts: surely that’s impossible - the nearest coast is 600 km away from my home. But where does it go? Then recently someone reminded me that the Karoo, where I live, was once an inland sea. According to the geological timescale this would have been during the Mesozoic period, and fossil remains found in surrounding hills are evidence of this prehistoric geography. This pelagic backdrop provided the inspiration for my artwork Mesozoic Karoo.

For this work, I employed the reduction linocut technique, which uses only one tile, its surface cut away in stages. The image is created by carving, inking, and printing the tile onto the paper throughout these stages, so that layers of ink are overprinted, working from light to dark. Eventually, for the final and darkest colour, almost no surface is left uncarved. This print comprises eight carved layers and eleven colours, but along the way, the different colours and tonal values also interact with one another in building up the image. The over-layering of colours can be unpredictable, and this printmaking process is addictive and as suspenseful as binge-watching a television series. But unlike binge-watching, although while making art I escape from reality, on my return I have a tangible witness to my time away.

Often when working, I become so absorbed in the art-making process that, once the work is completed, I am struck by how it has taken on a life of its own. With Mesozoic Karoo, my intention was to depict a dreamscape, a surreal adaptation of the Karoo landscape to transport the viewer to another time and place. My surprise once this work was created was its ambiguity, how the sea seemed to be suspended like a tent above the land, and how the Karoo land gave the impression of a seafloor where the viewer could imagine oceanic shadows floating slowly out of the picture plane. Could the viewer be encouraged to dive visually into a place where irreconcilable worlds meet?

The imagery of Mesozoic Karoo represents my first dive into the surreal, an early exploration of concepts such as dreams, unconscious longings, untold stories, and shadowy archetypes.

Paper Ink