About R2 / helios helianthus
R2 / helios helianthus, the third print club work, is a re examination of my Radial / TWO geometry. For the print club edition, I wanted to experiment with some more complex laser cutting ideas, as there continues to be a fascination with the idea of cutting forms out of the print work, that will support or reflect the sculptural nature of the underlying drawings.
R2 / helios speaks to both the idea of the passage of the sun, and its place in our lives and the seasons, and to the idea of the sunflower, and its near totemic power to grow and shine in our gardens each year.
I hope the drawing somehow captures some of that growth and petal like structure, and as you can see in the attached images, I’ve drawn some inspiration from the way the Helianthus was growing in my garden that year, and every year in fact.
The outer gold disc therefore becomes the Helios part of the composition, a rim of gold foiled paper, that is laser cut to respond to the drawings rotational symmetry as it works outwards from the core of the study.
It was a real challenge to recompose all the various pieces onto a backing sheet of Somerset paper, before debossing the work on Ros Ford’s press, back at BV Studios. I certainly learnt a lot form the piece, and I think in many ways it’s one of the most successful of all the editions to date.
R2, in the studio & in situ
Print Club blog, August 25th, 2016
“...In part it comes from the deep reds and fiery oranges of the Helianthus I've been growing in my garden over the past few years, and in part from a desire to catch a little of the warmth and sunshine we've been enjoying in France this summer, including visits to Giverny, Villandry and Fontevraud, amongst many other fabulous and inspiring places...”
“...I've been wanting to try out the idea of using laser cutting to augment a print for a long time now. Not the kind of industrial laser cutting I use for my works on Perspex, but something altogether more delicate, more ephemeral, so I'm experimenting with the idea of integrating, or splicing together, 2 laser cut sheets of paper, one a C type print, the other foil…
…The idea that you can cut solid materials with light, line and light is astonishing…
…Perhaps there's some interconnectivity between the power of the sun, the helianthus, and the laser light, a latent glow as the summer decays...”
Text from the Print Club blog, August 25th, 2016
About the Print Club
If you’d like to receive three or four exclusive new editions in the post each year, alongside personal news and views from the studio, and invitations to shows and fairs, please do consider becoming a member of my Experimental Print Club. You can join or leave the club at any time, with absolutely no obligation to stay any longer than you want to.
New works are sent out somewhat sporadically throughout the year, often in line with the changing seasons. Each piece is unique, exclusive, and only available on the day it’s editioned, the size of the edition being determined by the number of members on the day.
I hope the club presents a more personal and intriguing way to connect with the studio, by creating a platform for collecting engaging new works for your home. The club is hosted online here, and I send out fairly regular blog posts and emails about the work too. I’d like to think that it’s an interesting proposition!
Membership is currently priced at £36 per month inc. UK delivery, or £42 for an international address.
Associated works
