Late last year I visited MONA, the Museum of Old and New Art, in Tasmania. It was a fascinating experience and I was particularly enchanted with an installation entitled 20:50 by Richard Wilson.

His website describes it as follows:

The gallery is filled to waist height with recycled engine oil, from which the piece takes its name. A walk way leads from a single entrance, leading the viewer into the space until they are surrounded by oil on all sides. The impenetrable, reflective surface of the oil mirrors the architecture of the room exactly, placing the viewer at the mid-point of a symmetrical visual plane.

Needless to say, I took many photos and have adapted one as the inspiration for this print project.

This photo is from a viewing platform overlooking the pool below and has been enlarged and cropped.
I made a basic drawing, added some colour and scanned it onto acetate to etch into a solar plate.

Once the etching process was complete I proceeded to pull some prints.

The line work has etched fairly crisply in most places but the tonal variations of the pen shading is quite haphazard. So why has this happened when the acetate image was very strong?

The main reason is the quality of the UV exposure light set-up we have at the communal studio where I developed the plate. Frankly, it’s not great, in fact it’s terrible. It’s a cumbersome process with light diffusing unevenly and not contained correctly within a regulated space to ensure solar plates receive the same amount of UV across the whole surface.

So, how to move forward seeing as I want to develop the design further? Next step: find another method of printing until I have access to a better quality exposure system.

Resources:
Image & some text – www.richardwilsonsculptor.com/sculpture/2050.html
Image – www.backyardopera.com/art-culture-4/2018/7/10/an-unfinished-guide-to-mona