Studio Practice Statement

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I see each print as an allegory in its own right, bringing together fragments of historical tradition, image-making and material processes to explore the construction, transformation and beauty of an image. My practice is rooted in observations of landscape and architecture, particularly ideas of construction and deconstruction. I am interested in how these processes of assembly and disassembly can be translated through the physical language of printmaking.

Printmaking grounds me. It is an experimental, process-led medium requiring play, dedication and research. Like ink itself, it can meander in unpredictable directions, allowing ideas to develop gradually. The technical demands, the precise timings, measurements and the reverse engineering of an image into layers, require meticulous planning, yet the final outcome remains open to chance and serendipity. I am particularly drawn to this tension between control and unpredictability.

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My practice stems from a painterly approach to analogue printmaking, using process-heavy and labour-intensive techniques including etching, engraving, lino and screen printing. Intaglio and relief processes are inherently spatio-temporal: plates accumulate traces of the actions performed upon them and become relics of the time spent making. The systematic creation of a mark and the controlled inking and wiping of a plate contrast with the chaotic behaviour of ink, creating a dialogue between precision and accident.

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My interest in space is informed by beginning an Architecture degree at The Bartlett, UCL, in 2010. Although I started only the first year, technical drawing and a fascination with viewpoints, sections, perspective and spatial construction continue to influence my work. I also develop work through learning new processes, allowing unfamiliar techniques and their limitations to generate unexpected visual directions.

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I frequently move images between different methods of making. An image may begin as a technical drawing, become a watercolour and then be translated onto a solar plate, as in 'Esoteric decay'. Elsewhere, I use film photography to create digital negatives, manipulate them digitally and then return to traditional printmaking processes. In works such as 'Eden' and 'Valhalla', this movement between analogue and digital creates a visual record of transformation.

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My current work explores the visual language of machines and the looming presence of AI as a new form of machine. I use engine cross-sections from the Midlands RAF Museum as source material, manipulating their structures through acid, etching, layering and the physical process of inking a plate. The resulting hand-printed images are then fed back into AI, generating new interpretations and imagined machines. This creates a feedback loop between the handmade and the digital, reflecting AI’s ability to process, reinterpret and construct new narratives from existing imagery.

This process raises questions around the aura of the original.  Where is the aura within a physical machine, the artist’s interpretation, the handmade print or the AI-generated reconstruction? I am interested in how meaning and authenticity shift as an image moves between these stages.

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The relationship between perception, machinery and image-making is central to this enquiry. Dziga Vertov’s concept of the ‘mechanical eye’ and Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s ideas around embodied perception prompt me to consider where the artist’s body, hand and physical gesture sit within an age of AI. If the handmade artwork becomes data, can the physical act of making survive its digital interpretation? Ultimately, my practice occupies the space between hand and machine, original and reproduction, control and chance. Through the slowness, physicality and imperfection of printmaking, I explore how we construct, perceive and remake images in a technological age.