Locus

Back to Space and Place

Section 1

Locus

Victoria Paterson

Abstract

Printmaking, in particular etching necessitates physical labour and a specific materiality. Due to its reproductive qualities printmaking is often conceptualised as ‘feminine’. The imagery for Locus, a series of drypoint etchings, is sourced from both European and Japanese women’s craft and textile books and other found imagery including figurative motifs. The process of creating Locus is manifold and involves hand drawn sketches and digital composition followed by the labour intensive process of drypoint etching and the mechanical process of printing. It is a physical, ritual mark-making experience that is both methodical and delicate. It is in this context that these works further explore and reflect upon subjective experience, materiality in printmaking, and notions of the feminine. For many of the Locus works photographic imagery is sourced from European and Japanese ‘women’s craft’ and textile books and other found imagery including figurative motifs. These forms investigate and complicate perceptions and Western notions of the feminine and explore the boundaries and relevance of contemporary printmaking. These works involve a physical, ritual mark-making experience that is both methodical and delicate.

This work contributed to the artist being awarded the IAF Franz Kempf Printmaking Award by Carclew, and was Space and Place 2018’s Representative Artwork.

Keywords

bisexuality; queer identity; plurisexual identity; queer time; voice; performance poetry

Author Biography

Victoria Paterson graduated from her Bachelor of Psychological Science at Adelaide University in 2014. She is an emerging printmaker working within traditional and non-traditional printmaking techniques. More of her work is available at: http://victoriapaterson.com.au/printmaking/

The collection, Locus, consisting of four untitled dry-point etchings, was chosen to be the Gender, Sex and Sexualities 2018 Conference, Space and Place, representative artwork.