Praeterita

  I linked to this via Twitter yesterday, but I felt compelled to write a blog post about it. It's a print by Rirkrit Tiravanija, which is three feet high and eighty-four feet wide (yes, you read that correctly): 'Art in America' has kindly allowed the world to embed a video slideshow of the thing, as above. The materials are inkjet prints, offset lithography, chine colle, and silkscreen, and it was produced in an edition of 40. Rirkrit has made an international reputation for his conceptual performances in which, among other things, he just cooked a load of food for people who turned up to a gallery on opening night. This colossal print is basically a kind of visual diary of his globe-trotting life, as he moves from country to country and project to project. Of course, he didn't produce the print all by himself: he had dozens of helpers, from master printmakers to student volunteers. But the result is a rich and incredibly beautiful mixture of marks, signs, shape...

A list of works of art that I saw in a museum or gallery (rather than on the internet or in a book) that drew me towards art or transformed my ideas about art: ‘Pieta’ (1499), by Michelangelo ‘The Execution of the Emperor Maximilian’ (1867-69) by Manet ‘La Romeria de San Isidro’ (1819-23) by Goya ‘Man with a Guitar’ (1911) by Braque ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’ (1907) by Picasso ‘Deutschlands Geisteshelden’ (1973), by Anselm Kiefer ‘The Three Crosses’ (1653), etching by Rembrandt ‘Australia’ (1951), by David Smith ‘Limehouse Basin’ (1990), by Jock McFadyen ‘Altar to the Chases High School’ (1987), by Christian Boltanski What pictures changed your life in some way?   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Here is another method of making a collagraph with the inexpensive aluminum flashing tiles I talked about in a previous post. It's very simple and effective. The little movie included in this post illustrates it step by step, but here's a summary: Draw directly on the plate (aluminum flashing tile) with Elmer's glue, or a brush dipped in the glue. Shake carborundum grit over the wet glue. Tip the plate up to shake off excess grit. When the plate is dry, seal it with a layer of acrylic gloss medium (I realised after I made the movie that I missed out this step!). You can then ink and print the plate in the regular way: Use a brush or piece of card to drag ink across the plate. The carborundum grit holds the ink very well. Wipe away the excess ink using a piece of tarlatan. Place damp printmaking paper over the plate, then run it through the press. For the slideshow, I inked the plate "a la poupee", which means to use different colours of ink on the same ...

Here is another artist's book that I made at the end of last year. It's called 'Coalyard'. 8" x 15", accordion book, bound in brown bookcloth. Method: take eight images of industrial buildings and mineworks. Print on tan Hahnemuhle printmaking paper using paper-litho transfer. Write a short remembered instance relating to my miner-grandfather and the local mines where I grew up. Print narrative in continuous line across middle of the images:   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader