MARK GRAVER
UNDERTOW
Art at Wharepuke
Jan 7 – Feb 2015
Undertow is a linked series of HD videos, shot from under water looking up towards the sky during rainfall, and photopolymer metal salt etchings.
The concern is to capture the effects of light, shadow and sound at a particular place and point in time. There is no editing other than changing the speed and setting the duration.
The photopolymer etchings are isolated video stills, manipulated in Photoshop then etched into aluminium plates.
The intention is to create a fluid installation using elements of the different mediums to explore connections, similarities and differences between the moving, temporal and the still images and between photographic and traditional printmaking processes.
The series was first shown in the exhibition ‘Combinations’ curated by Mark at the Centre for Contemporary Printmaking, Seacourt, Bangor, Northern Ireland in 2014.
Mark Graver is an award winning artist printmaker, founder of the Wharepuke Print Studio and co-director of Art at Wharepuke. He is author of the A&C Black printmaking handbook, ‘Non-Toxic Printmaking’ (2011, London) and his work is held in many public collections around the world including the V&A Museum, London, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford UK, the National Gallery of Taiwan and in China, Mexico, Portugal, Malaysia and NZ.
Undertow Series as part of the exhibition ‘Combinations’ at Centre for Contemporary Art, Bangor, Northern Ireland, July 2014
Undertow series 2014 from Mark Graver on Vimeo.
Taken from a quote by Horace, ‘Pulvis et umbra sumus’ (we are but dust and shadow) Umbra Sumus is an ongoing project containing photopolymer and acrylic resist etchings, video and sound works.
The work is partly a response to the death, in January 2011, of my father and to the wider human condition. The use of shadows alludes to the movement of light, the passing of time and, ultimately, to mortality. Still images are used for the etchings while the video works allow for an actual temporal experience using the same or similar source material.
Solander Gallery 218 Willis Street, Wellington