Click on an image to see an enlarged version.
The titles come from a line in a poem by Brecht about the Russian Revolution.
The figures were taken from a photograph of South Korean workers attacking police
with iron bars. The bars have been made into flags to make the image more ambiguous.
This image was partially influenced by the debate over genetically modified foods.
One figure is protesting about the attack that he is suffering, while accepting an almost
hidden bribe with hand outstretched behind his back.
Stilts represent the precarious situation of two
warring factions. One side manages to knock the opponent off his stilts, but to do this
he has had to let go of his own stilts.
Spanish for a rag doll. The start of the idea for the image was the Goya painting of
the same name. The figure is being thrown about by her own arms, and by a priest from
one of Goya's Caprichos etchings. The smooth gradation of blues in the sky was very
difficult to achieve, requiring careful overprinting.
The writing in the sky and its reflection in the water are the medieval chemists'
signs for iron and the sulphuric etching solution, vitriol. The wood block was cut in
half before printing, the bottom half was roughened to create the texture of the sea
and the top was polished to make the gradations of the sky smooth.
This first attempt at reduction woodcutting is a variation on the theme of pinks.
All of the woodcuts on this page are 30 x 45 cm, and 52 x 69 when framed.
They are printed on 160gms Lana Royal Crown 100% cotton paper measuring 38 x 56 cm.
The prints are made by the same method of reduction printing that Picasso used to
produce his linocuts. The same block is used to overprint all the colours of the image,
which means that the edition size has to be determined before printing starts.
send an email to neil woodall