Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery

 

The show is called 5 Cent Life, a reference to the book 1c life, published in 1968. This was a book of poetry illustrated by contemporary artists at the time, Jasper johns, Warhol etc.

 

In this case it refers to the cheaply printed ephemeral nature of the images I have referenced and manipulated,

 

This show is a print show about printed matter, I have selected several images and redrawn them and cut them on different scales, so that they all look like the same print increased or decreased in size, when they are in fact, all individual prints.

 

I looked at RIchard Prince's images from advertising whereby he re-photographed photographs from ad campaigns. I have made a series of woodcuts in a similar way making prints of printed images.

 

They include a mega series of Batman bubble gum wrappers from 1966, the year of the TV show starring Adam west and Burt Ward. A year where this sort of shameless merchandising was aimed at children in the form of toys games and collectable cards , such as the ones I have appropriated.

 

I have also used book covers, Bullwinkle and LP sleeves such as Magoo in Hi-fi. The sculptures of the police car and the huge Batmobile are an adjunct to these images, using packing crates and cardboard.

The emphasis of the show is on colour and how inks when printed tend to "have a life of their own" There is mis registration, opacity,translucence and smudging, reminding us perhaps in this age of
digital printing that there is nothing quite so charming as the good old fashioned concept of.... The genuine mistake, created in the heat
of the print workshop.

 

Andrew Mockett