UAL/Clifford Chance Sculpture Award - playing with monoprints

Monoprints are as they sound; one off, unique and individual prints. There are many different ways of making a monoprint: addition and subtraction are the most obvious when you either roll out ink onto a plate then remove it by wiping/drawing into it or add ink to a clean plate with fingers, brushes or any other tools of your choosing. Of course you can use these techniques in combination but you can also many other techniques such as stencils or add texture with fabrics/cardboard/bubble wrap and anything else you can think off. The possibilities are endless!

I decided to explore some possibly imagery ideas for the Canary Wharf sky-scrapers using monoprints. This is a great way of exploring ideas without spending a lot of time cutting lino or etching zinc. It's low-tech but high reward and relatively (until you get completely sucked in and realise a week has disappeared!) quick.

The images above shows some monoprints in progress. The top row show the first pull and the ghost (the second pull taken without changing the plate so it is paler) on the table while I work into the ink left on the plate. I used the corners of a small piece of greyboard to draw windows into a skyscraper. These were made by rolling ink onto the plate then adding newsprint stencils to block some of the ink as well as some wiping to add clouds to the sky. The bottom row is an inked-up plate with different textures added on top (left) and (right) the resulting plate after being run through an etching press (the bubble wrap pops very satisfyingly!). The ink is now both on the plate and on the items that were placed on it so can be used to add further textural interest to prints.

Below shows a print with lots of inky textural elements placed on top along with newsprint to block areas not to be printed and on the right a close up of the resulting print.

The images below show two prints in various stages, the first and second in both rows are printed directly onto the paper, the final prints also have had additional elements added by collage using papers that were printed with a variety of textures.

Using monoprints in this way has helped me to think about whether I want to directly represent the skyscrapers at Canary Wharf or whether I want to use them as inspiration and take a slightly more abstract approach. I find the reflections and patterns fascinating when I'm there, it seems to me that the views are transient despite the buildings seeming permanent. In thinking about transience I also realised that the area has undergone so much change, particularly in the last 40 years, that to pin down a specific skyline would seem to pin the final piece to a specific time whereas what I am trying to depict is the changing nature of the Isle of Dogs over time.

These images are informing my thinking about the area I am trying to create work about which is a method of working called 'practice based research' taught to me and developed during my MA at Central Saint Martins, this work becomes part of the research conducted into the place I am researching. Alongside making work I have also visited the Museum of the Docklands, and the wider Canary Wharf area, ridden up and down the Thames on the Uber boat, looked at a huge number of books about the Isle of Dogs and wider docklands area both for historical text and images as well as looking at contemporary and historical paintings, drawing and prints of the area. There is such a huge wealth of material it can feel overwhelming and this is where going back to the studio and just making something really helps.