John Graham
dal 10/10/2012 al 16/11/2012
Segnalato da
10/10/2012
John Graham
Green on red gallery, Dublin
Phase. "Though in the genus of Print these new works are essentially drawings, print methods making drawings. I'm interested in qualities particular to the printmaking process (...)" (J. Graham).
Green On Red Gallery is pleased to announce Phase, an exhibition of new works by John
Graham. This is the artist’s first exhibition with the gallery since 2008.
“Though in the genus of Print these new works are essentially drawings, print methods
making drawings. I’m interested in qualities particular to the printmaking process, the way
elements are layered for example, the emphasis on alignments, on mirroring, and
multiplicity. Printmakers always seem to be up against limits. The sheet of paper, the
printing press, the materials and processes used, while vehicles for expression, also seem to
contain it. Boundaries provide definition but I also hope to find ways through or around
them, to see beyond them, with sight sharpened by them at the same time.
Etching makes a bitten line that when printed sits up on the paper’s surface. The objective
quality of this raised line helps distance it from the world of illusion and bring it closer to
the material world. A group of five large etchings are called, ‘Abat-Voix’*. They are made
in four adjoining sections, with dense fields of tightly packed lines juxtaposed against each
other. Similar in format, surfaces – black (zinc plates) or silver (copper plates) – are
differentiated by the specific characteristics of the metals and drawing tools used to make
them. Made through a combination of autographic and mechanical process, the work
requires a machine-like attention, but benefits from my not being a machine, or from my
being only an imperfect one, a machine with feelings.
Smaller works, ‘Tests/Arrangement’, are made from test plates for the larger ones.
Based on familiar tropes, off-settings, and doublings of various kinds, each work is made
from combinations of repeated elements, unique iterations carrying the referent of other
possibilities within them.
Working in the studio I listen to music. It’s part of the experience of drawing so I believe it
makes its way in there. The exhibition title refers to a period of time, a particular phase,
and also owes something to the composer Steve Reich. I’m interested in tensions between
repeated acts and the changes occurring as time and repetitions coalesce. Reich’s ‘Phasing’
technique adjusts sequences of identical notes to move gradually out of time, out of phase,
producing in the process an ever-shifting relationship between identical sets of repeating
patterns. The linear surfaces of these printed works play against each other in a similar
fashion, producing a kind of visual counterpoint.
A small group of lithographs are the first prints I’ve made in this medium. Entitled
‘Mirror’, the prints are based on a page from a notebook. There is no drawing as such;
simply the copying and repositioning of ostensibly blank elements.”
JG September 2012
* An ‘Abat-Voix’ is a device for reflecting sound, specifically the sounding board over a pulpit or rostrum.
Following Phase will be a group exhibition of new works by a selection of our gallery artists, opening on Thursday 22 Nov, from 6 - 8pm.
For further information please contact Jerome, Mary or Jonathan at T: 01 6713414 or E: info@greenonredgallery.com
Opening Thursday 11 Oct from 6-8pm
Green on red gallery
26 Lombard Street - Dublin
opening hours are: Tues – Fri: 10 – 6pm / Sat: 1 – 4pm
Admission free