happy prints.

5 - 22 May 2021 | White Rhino Artspace, Sydney

There is a pressure in contemporary artistic practice to remain relevant by engaging with politics and conceptualism, and an expectation to maintain momentum as an emerging artist leaving university. happy prints is a new body of work exploring the potential of an artistic practice beyond the restrictive environment of formal study, and searches for the enjoyment of making work without external influence. The exhibition departs from ‘big’ concepts and instead celebrates the playfulness of printmaking and the quiet moments of the everyday.

Highly saturated reduction linocuts document fleeting compositions of Sydney’s urbanscape, archiving the mind’s tendency to wander as a distraction from the mundane. Place has long been a recurring theme of my practice and serves as a comfort zone from which to navigate the evolution of a self-directed practice. The candid compositions are the products of commuting and wandering through my surroundings. They are moments from any day that have caught my eye, and made me smile. They are simply an ode to my obsession with terraces, powerlines and ducks.

The excitement of learning the new process of reduction linocut relieved the burden of perfection, which is often a companion of printmaking. The meditative motions of carving were calming and therapeutic, allowing me to fully immerse myself into the making process. The graphic materiality of linocuts also presented the opportunity to experiment with colour and convey this newfound sense of play within my practice. Vibrant colour is unfamiliar to my monochromatic brain and becomes uncanny when translated to an otherwise bland landscape. The candy-coloured palette conveys the happiness in capturing these glimpses of urban beauty, and my joy in making them into prints.

 Available works: