BluePrint

There are several takeaways from printing the woodblock:

a. An interesting effect can be otained by slightly misregistering but note the print tvat was mast effective in trems of depth of colour and also volumn within the print (shading effects)

b. Take care with moire effects when over-printing plates & aldo ink contamination for other subsequently printing!

c. The colours can be mixed on the plate altho this was possible with available rollers as I was doing my inking after most ppl had finiahed.

Marc Chagall Belarusian/French, 1887–1985

Rencontre à la grande fenêtre, 1976

In André Breton’s 1924 Manifesto of Surrealism, the author famously describes an experience where, upon falling asleep, he became curious about the phrase “there is a man cut in two by a window”. This quote has been interpreted as Breton envisioning a barrier separating the conscious and the unconscious through a sheet of transparent glass. While Chagall had previously experimented with the window as a reflection device before Breton’s Manifesto - mimicking the colours of Paris, as seen in the infamous 1913 work Paris par la fenêtre - in the present work, he goes further.

In Rencontre à la grande fenêtre, there is an uncanny paradox between how the window divides the monotony of the everyday, but also facilitates its convergence with the fantastical. A woman levitates, mirroring the pose of other flying figures above. Her arms extend dramatically across the vertical axis established by the two bouquets - one held by an angel and the other by a woman below. Meanwhile, a couple outside the window wander along the banks of the Seine, blissfully unaware of the fantastical chaos within. What blurs the boundary between these two worlds are the two cockerels, one perched on the bridge and the other rotating amidst the clouds. The positioning of these cockerels is impossible to discern, further reinforcing if windows reflect or restrict imagination.

Two coloursPurple - red & blue with white & a little blackRed (red brown?) - red & yellow with a little black

The rolled out colour on the plate was an equal amount of both dabbed on the desk & rolled together. Works well with the FT.

See print for further points to follow up on

Ober application of glue to the newspaper. I need to be more methodical about coverage & not worry when it dries.

The wiping of the plastic plate. I feel the plate could/should be wiped more & with textural effects where it covers the newspaper. Overly much ink on the tin foil on the head.

Final printing session: it called for greater focus & organisation than anticipated.

I printed a block colour on the back of each print that could potentially be used in the two sequences to be hung back to back. The image (above) shows an approximation of the effect. The inital plan was to print using silver.

a. The use of the silver didn't prove effective: it provided a 'gloss' rather than a noticeable colour unless - it seemed - applied quite thickly. Also it seemed difficult to get even coverage. - I am pretty sure because it dried v quickly due to being so plastic (RB). A v similar colour could be achieved with white & v small amount of black - noticed from seeing a colour mixed by another student.

b. There was an issue with the screen size compared to the area of the pre-existing images, which reflected how much of the edges of the screen I taped up. The solution was to tape each screen less & do each print in two iterations. Ofcourse that left a stripe of darker yellow; it also amplified the care needed in handling (more chance of yellow transfer on the existing image).

c. There was a greater need for preparation of the images to be printed so as to maximise the limited space & there should have been more awareness of the key images (centre character, which were limited in number - without the bark & map layers). More attention should also have been paid to taking the images off the racks (again limited space; limited time meant images were not fully dry & danger of yellow transfer was increased).

d. Greater focus of attention was needed in a busy & noisy print room when handling and stacking the semi-dried prints (so as to ensure this went in order of driest to most recently printed) and with tissue - not newsprint- in between the individual prints to limit the prospect of yellow ink transferring to the pre-existing images.

e. Unwanted yellow could be removed if seen when fresh & wiped off carefully with a sponge but this was far from ideal option in maintaining a fast paced rhythm.

shocked by how bright even our pain is

running wildly beside us like an underground river.

And whatever language is good for

From 1969, Alex Dimitrov

The 'Fleet' text has become the focus & key to providing viewer entry into the work. In other words it offers the potential for the work to open out & become more than something that signifies personally to me alone.

My initial use of the ambigram was to incorporate 'Fleet' into the work in a visible but not immediately apparent way, in the same way the river affects the visible landscape of Kings Cross. It also appeals that ambigrams are thought of in terms of compelling the 'viewer to shift their perspective and engage with language on an intellectual and intuitive level simultaneously, turning text into art.' (Wikipedia)

Interestingly 'Douglas Hofstadter coined the word "homogram" to define an ambigram with identical letters.[11][38] In this case, the first half of the word turns into the last half.[39]'. See my quote from him below about generality in the specific' when I was looking at abstraction.

Also around the same time/place in my blog see Etel Adnan, Key Signs in Tate Modern & the Antoni Tàpies work 'Z':"This piece exemplifies Tàpies’s exploration of materiality and his interest in combining symbolic letters with complex textures to evoke meaning beyond the literal, inviting contemplation on language, form, and presence." Antoni Tapies | Z | https://share.google/RFspIYqGVf7Q91He2

All links noticed retrospectively!

Concept & composition

The underlying concept: displacement. Or in a different way: lost from view. The Fleet - a river lost from view - displaces the placement of the railway & hotels.

The railway lost from view displaced the people who lived in the area prior to its arrival in the form of the stations & station hotels.

The construction of the building which has 'displaced' my view & (will have) displaced me - in part due to my lost view.

I prioritised concept over aesthetics in driving decisions about the placement of the elements & the colours. By that I mean aesthetic in a specific - limited - sense of 'beauty' see Kirchner's work (e.g. "[t]he recurring scorched yellow tones, later referred to as Kirchner Yellow, evoke heat, decay, and disturbance. Color functions here as an atmosphere rather than a surface." Kirchner’s Expressionism and Urban Anxiety | Art Learnings https://share.google/trvtCmCVTsDVwUZqa)

It was decided for aesthetic reasons that too many 'industrial' elements in dark grey might make for a very cluttered background to the 'Fleet' text.

The text works visually: although it has representative meaning it reads backwards & forwards as well as from below & above, and in front & from behind without proving an immediately accessible 'meaning', which is - perhaps paradoxically - lost from view.

The inclusion of the textual aspect means the work becomes the (different) combination(s) of the five letters that make the ambigram of 'Fleet'.

Process

An important aspect was recognising a. four of the characters were comprised of two rotated pairs; and b. the central element of the ambigram of 'Fleet' could be used (in combination with stencil) to make all of the four outer characters.

This allowed for a relatively quick printing process.

In printing it meant the orientation of the image in relation to each individual letter was crucial. The individual 'industrial' images in left top quarter were to be combined with the elements of the ambigram & to facilitate printing each set (of the various respective elements) was organised in advance.

Aesthetics

Ultimately there was some comment (DH) that the strongest (most 'punch') prints were a. those without the map & bark layers; b. the more solid 'industrial' images (photogrammetric images of my work in the interim show) worked best under the text (best contrast).

In preparing the images for presentation the misalignment of layers in registration proved problematic. Two options were explored: cutting down to the St Pancras layer (cutting of parts of gestural mark); and secondly cutting around the gestural marks (see above).

The use of two layers - each slightly offset - for the gestural marks added greatly to the impact & depth of the letters.

I am in two minds about the red/pink (fluro inks) blend used. On the one hand it sets up a strong jarring effect with the softer underlying blues/greens (but would a red have been as or even more effective); on the other a fluro yellow in combo with the black might have worked better (in terms of colour tones) but not done the conceptual work of the jarring effect generated in me by the construction that led my view to being lost.

Conclusion

Ultimately as it will be shown the work is a first effort - and provisional - piece.

I tend to agree the works with St Pancras alone seem to work best with the 'industrial elements. At the same time the 'bark' & 'map' layers are effective together & I think the addition of one central visual or textual element (perhaps one or more historical photos) to those layers would allow it to become one stand alone piece that could work as a diptych with the more 'industrial' elements. However I suspect the work(s) present differently when seen from a distance (i.e. when hung).