What breath remains (Four Part Breath)

Etching on paper, 2024

Inhale, hold, exhale, hold.

Even now, when I pull a print, there is a moment before the reveal when I hold my breath. I don't notice it until I flip the print over, and exhale.

This image is made of four steel plates that had been used to neutralise a saline sulphate solution used last year to produce my 'Dockyard Diary' series. I left the plates in the bath for 96 hours, 72 hours, 48 hours and 24 hours, weakening the mordant until there was no etching strength left, and it could be safely filtered and disposed.

The marks are a meditation of time passing in the act of printmaking. There are periods of lull, slowness and waiting, inherent to the practice, and in this case, the act of neutralising what has been nearly spent, but not quite.

Four steel steel plates, printed on Hahnemuhle white etching paper.
Plate size: 12.5cm x 15.5cm
Paper size: approx. 24.0cm x 28.0cm
Edition of 10

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