Experimental Compositions
Process, experimentation, and spontaneity play an important role in this printmaking series as well as my approach to making art. One of the preparatory exercises I did was to draw to music and indulged in spontaneous and impulsive mark making. This is something that continued throughout the creation of the Experimental Compositions series. I was inspired to do this by looking at works by Cy Twombly. Twombly’s prints and paintings have a repetitive and impulsive quality to them, but one series in particular spoke to me: Twombly’s Quattro Stagioni series. Quattro Stagioni alludes to a few things: it could mean four seasons, a pizza with four different toppings, and more notably it is the title for a Vivaldi concerti. In addition to looking at Jasper Johns’ number works I was inspired to create a playlist to listen to as I worked through my experimental and spontaneous printmaking process. I ‘obsessed’ over the number four and curated a playlist with songs that had the number four in their titles, lyrics, and album titles.
After the initial drawing stage of the process I looked at Intaglio Prints from the Wits Art Museum’s archive. I have responded to the artist Cecily Sash and her prints Not titled (abstract etching) 1960, and Not titled (abstract reeds) 1961. Sash’s works are abstracted but are still quite descriptive. I transformed my spontaneous fluid mark making that was non-descriptive into flowing forms of vegetation. I drew on a few of her other motifs from the prints and made the marks on the Perspex plates in time to the music I was listening to. When it came to working with carborundum, I was introduced to Mongezi Ncaphayi (an artist and musician) to consider in addition to Sash for my musical approach to this series. I was intrigued by his Perpetual Optimism IX work due to the background created with water colour, as well as the ‘guitar tab’ like markings sprinkled throughout the composition.
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Test Plate - Experimental Composition 1 Hannah Sarakinsky
Experimental Composition 2 Hannah Sarakinsky
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Experimental Composition 4 Hannah Sarakinsky
Experimental Composition 3 Hannah Sarakinsky
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