At a point where we are likely to leave the accumulation of facts and analysis of facts to AI, Grete Dalum is examining the tactile, the associative and the impermanence of what we think we know, in our hearts and in our achievements.
November 2023
Using images that combine natural, animal, and human architecture, I have appropriated a range of traditional and digital printing techniques to play with the flux happening when we perceive images. Between the beauty and the collapse of meaning, the prints change nature, and become inversed. The text is readable, but makes no sense. The aim of my stay at the Danish Art Workshops was to explore this dynamic and develop it towards an art installation and a book.
In the Graphics Studio I made the photopolymer plates from scratch and treated them in a range of ways to create intaglio, relief and half tone. Being able to print film, and make the plates in the Graphics Studio with great help from internal and external staff, I was able to get the balance right between the specific outcome for each image, while experimenting with each step of the process.
I tested a range of paper types as well as the digital treatment of the images and text, and ended up printing on Kozo paper as it has a temporal quality, like newsprint, but stronger, and as it is acid free it doesn’t go yellow and crisp up. The expression of the photopolymer prints is reminiscent of classical photographic printing techniques like cyanotypes, salt prints.
Working in the Graphics Studio gave me the opportunity to meet other amazing artists, to work consistently over 6 weeks and at a large scale. As a part of the research, I showed the work at Marwa Dabaieh’s sustainable house at the School of Architecture in Lund and I have published some of the work at the Writers Forum in London.
My work is supported by the Develop your Creative Practice funding from Arts Council England.
