Ken Currie: An Turas / The Crossing

Glasgow Print Studio presents the Indigo Series: An Turas/The Crossing, a new suite of etchings by Scottish artist Ken Currie.

 

"There is a strong relationship between these new prints and my paintings in the recent exhibitions An Turas/The Crossing, in London and Stornoway. They were in fact in close dialogue most of the time. Particular surface textures I wanted in the paintings were closely informed by surface textures in the etchings and vice versa, as was the choice to print in an indigo that echoes the palette of the paintings. Spit bite aquatint feels very close to painting sometimes and in fact a water soluble but oil-based pigment was used in both the paintings and as a stop out on the etching plates, lending a particular contingent fluidity to both.

 

Another critical feature in the etchings is the use of the reverse of plates already used - a common practice, especially at GPS. The straw hat varnish on the reverse of the plate is spontaneously abraded during its natural handling, exposing the metal underneath, which is then etched. This can produce some intriguing marks upon which to overlay a new etching.

 

I have been pursuing the notion of the distressed image. Distressed in the sense of weathering or ageing and but also distressed in the sense of images that unsettle. I wanted both the paintings and the etchings to look as though they had been exposed to the elements, particularly the sea, with random surface qualities suggesting salt deposits and the excretia of sea birds. This seemed to resonate with the imagery that was rooted in my recent experiences in the North Atlantic islands of the Hebrides where the sea has been deeply embedded existentially in the lives of generations of people."

 

 

 

"I was lucky enough to catch Ken's exhibition, The Crossing, at Flowers Gallery in London. An incredibly powerful show that left me thinking about the human spirit, determination and survival in the face of harsh forces. Something very poignant in our current time, the paintings and prints are imbued with resistance and hope.

 

Ken worked much more independently to make the Indigo Series compared to previous projects. He began with a request to use the backs of copper plates that had been used for his previous editions, and which retained deeply bitten marks from their creation. Master Printer Ian McNicol proofed these marks and coated the plates with hard ground for Ken to draw into at his own studio. The plates were then etched and proofed in the workshop to show the line work, and this is where the process changed. Typically the Master Printer would apply aquatints to the etching but Ken did this himself. He brought with him a water washable oil paint to use similarly to soap ground or stop out, with the resulting tonal marks bearing a painterly quality akin to soap ground but with smoother transitions in tone. Once Ken had finished with each plate, Ian would make a final proof, or BAT, the final stage before editioning by the studio.

 

When printing the Indigo Series I started to make parallels between individuals and community in the work itself, the open access nature of our workshop, and in how Ken approached the making of these etchings. Glasgow Print Studio is a community of people who are interested in making prints and sharing time and knowledge. In our current world this feels like a pocket of hope, a refuge of sorts. The relationship between artist, print and workshop embodies a balance of independence, resilience and support, and I felt this was evident in the way Ken worked with independence and self-sufficiency but also with support from Ian.

 

In the deeply cut marks that pattern the images we can see the history of Ken's previous editions, the labour and forces that were exerted upon the metal plates. Ken chose to build on this history rather than disregard it.

Important work for this moment."