‘Sufacing’ at Devonport Regional gallery

‘Surfacing’ was a group exhibition featuring 14 contemporary printmakers from across lutruwita/Tasmanian, working as part of the nowhereprint collective, an intergenerational group spanning emerging to established artists. Following an idea proposed by Emma Magnusson-Reid, each artist created new work exploring the idea that our practice as printmakers has correlations with the way we inhabit the landscape in which we live.

The work I included was called the ‘Lost World Suite’, comprising 3 vertically orientated collages which were inspired by the Lost World track on the north east face of kunanyi/Mt Wellington in nipaluna/Hobart.

The following is from the introduction to the catalogue that was produced to accompany the show.

An island is a raised living surface in constant negotiation; plants take hold in stone fissures, waters trace new paths, rocks meet tide, earth shifts under weather, shorelines dissolve and reform. What we see is only the skin of deeper forces, hidden pressures and cycles that shape form and appearance.

In printmaking too, the surface is never final. It is marked, cut, inked, veiled, pressed then momentarily concealed before revealing what lies beneath. The matrix holds the trace of our hands, much like the island accrues the impacts of time and living. Each iteration of a print carries a duality of disappearance and emergence, the unseen labour made visible through mirrored impressions onto paper.

Surfacing this island is something we all undertake in the nowhereprint collective. As scattered practitioners across Lutruwita/Tasmania, we inhabit varied natural, built, and historical terrains, much like the diverse techniques we work with, think through, and expand from. These surroundings permeate our imagery.

We attend to this delicate threshold: surfaces that hold memory, impressions that linger until brought to light. The island and the print mirror one another, each a record of depth beneath surface, a physical pressing forward toward revelation. Our processes move through states of above and below, intaglio and relief, and everything else in-between.