Today, because we could not discuss the ATC show this summer, we started our first draft of our Artist’s Statements. Just to give you a little food for thought, here’s an artist statement you can read to get the gears rolling.
“My photographic exploration of animal taxidermy has evolved from the examination of individual specimens (as portraits) to the discovery or placement of animals in unusual contexts. Although taxidermy is still in the forefront, the relationship between the animal and its environment plays a greater role, thus adding a level of mysterious narrative to each situation. The photogravure process transforms this photographic information to image-as-object and creates a dissonance far more pronounced than the artificiality of the taxidermy alone.
“Silent warbler” is from Locomotive Torpor, a suite which documents small, dried animal remains and presents them as fossil-like impressions using ink on paper. The attraction to these small creatures is greatly magnified by their individual animation. They seem active, gesturing, locomotive. The gestures or implied movement of each specimen contradicts their mummified state. The greatly enlarged scale allows the viewer to explore the minutiae of the usually unexamined detail. Each creature is presented on a sheet of heavy paper, hung from specimen pins through metal grommets. The images are imprinted into the fibers of the paper in ink by a photogravure plate to echo the fossil-like nature of the specimen.
The rich beauty of the historical photogravure process represents most of my other work and is a jumping off point for my book works, artistamps and many mixed media potentialities.”
-David Morrish from Art of the Photogravure
David Morrish was my Photography instructor at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College’s School of Fine Arts. I threw this in just to provide some more artist exposure.
Artistic License 