Anna Russell has been selected for this exhibition at No Vacancy Gallery, Melbourne.
resist/relief takes the technical language of making, conceptualising this process to create a duality between these two forms.
The resist technique exposes and endures, withstanding corrosive agents to continually occupy space. The artists in this exhibition have responded to this theme through works that reflect acts of resistance; be they highly visible social issues that are crying for action, or smaller acts of everyday resistance that would otherwise go unseen.
Acts of resistance, however, require us to practice self-care. Relief techniques carve out a space that offers clarity and calm. Artists have considered the ways in which we look after ourselves within resistance. This has taken the form of whatever acts of self-care mean or look like to them.
Anna Russell
Plants resist by persisting. They start out soft and flexible, but can become so determined and irresistible that they move mountains. An encouraging exemplar for artists.
The text embedded in the prints offers some relief in the zeitgeist of the climate emergency. It offers hope through resistance to ecological and social injustice – if only we realise the urgency. Is there another exemplar in the print studio? The chemicals we use to resist can be swept aside when they are no longer fit for purpose (hopefully without solvents).
My prints are in relief. The plates used are waferboard, woodblock, photopolymer and etched zinc, a nod to plates usually reserved for intaglio printing.
Boundary Relief print (unique state) 29 x 26cm
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