MONOTYPES
These experimental monotypes are developed from fragments of plastic waste collected in and around Hackney. The discarded materials are used as printing forms and pressed through layers of ink into one-off impressions. Each print is then worked back into with coloured pencil, chalk or paint.
I wanted to use the small, annoying fragments of plastic that persist in our lives. Even after thousands of years, despite recycling and reuse, plastic doesn’t return to organic matter but remains, embedded in earth and ocean, present in every square metre of even the Antarctic seas as micro and nanoplastics. Meanwhile, the instability driven by fossil-based systems can break off country-sized icebergs in moments. Using one to depict the other does not resolve the problem, but it might make us think or feel something.
The series results from my time as Artist in Residence in Antarctica, travelling with the Royal Navy. Instead of focusing on specific icebergs, these pieces embody the memories of icebergs. The title draws inspiration from the Beatles’ song “Blackbird.”(…singing in the dead of night). With round-the-clock access to a studio in the ship’s crow’s nest and battling insomnia, I found myself mesmerized by the icebergs as they emerged and faded into the night. Their vast forms appeared for just a fleeting moment, almost as if they were softly singing in the darkness, only to vanish, leaving me with the feeling of having experienced something truly significant.
