I’m really delighted to have been selected to exhibit at Bankside Gallery for this exhibition. The national original print exhibition is organised by the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers and is an open submission exhibition showcasing the best of contemporary printmaking.
The image I’m showing is called ‘coin’ and is a screen print using layers of pearlised and matt colour and finished with metal leaf. It’s the first work I created as part of the studio practice for the PhD I’m working on with University of Glasgow. I’m looking at theology and economics and how they interrelate and this print was created from my first impressions of the topic, a kind of overview.
There is light and dark, there are complex global networks that overlap and obscure one another. It’s hard to know where to start, but the advice I received from artists, writers and theologians alike was to start with something right in front of me, find a thread and follow it. I was reminded of a bible story where Jesus is asked his opinion on taxation and, knowing the the question was a trap, asked to look at a coin. That one piece of metal, something ordinary and everyday, embodied both beauty and empire, precious and worthless it speaks of the two sides of our nature, and links us to power, corruption and greed, but also generosity, provision and the abundance of the earth.
The exhibition takes place at Bankside Gallery 19th – 30th September 2018.