Emma Willemse Works on paper 2020
The Stone Boat. Intaglio linocut on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm. 40 x 70,5cm. 1/1 Unique print, unframed R6000
Emma Willemse
Works on paper 2020 A catalogue of printmaking works created in the year 2020 Monotypes, linocuts, stitching on paper and digital prints Printmaking studio, Hoofstraat Conceptual, Riebeek Kasteel
Hanging on threads Digital print on HahnemĂźhle 300gsm 20 x 20 cm Limited edition 5 prints Available: 4/5 Unframed R 1200
Artmaking in the year 2020 When reflecting on my work in the year 2020, I realized that my intuitive response to the unprecedented events of this year had been to pursue a space for contemplation, commemoration, and remembrance through my artmaking. In August I completed The Boat Circle, my site-specific, public sculpture, and this was installed next to the outdoor amphitheatre at the iconic Royal Hotel in Riebeek Kasteel. The labyrinth path of The Boat Circle leads to a boat filled with stones, and viewers can walk the contemplative path and place their own stones into the boat as a unique and personal symbolic act. Over time, this serves to build up a tangible collective commemoration - a massive heap of stones. The Boat Circle (2020). Aerial view, site-specific sculptural installation. Labyrinth path constructed from river pebbles, found boat filled with stones from the Kasteelberg Mountain, Riebeek Valley. Boat and path size: 20 x 26m.
This was followed by A year of hanging on threads - my series of small-scale artworks on paper created in conversation with The Stone Circle Project. While the format of the three-dimensional installation is large-scale and monumental, these works offer a more intimate visual experience of the installation through their views from far above. During the making process, I further developed the imagery in these artworks by adding textures of printed cloth, and through stitching.
A year of hanging on threads I Monotype and stitching on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 40 x 40 cm R 4500
A year of hanging on threads II Monotype and stitching on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 40 x 40 cm R 4500
A year of hanging on threads III Monotype and stitching on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 40 x 40 cm R 4500
A year of hanging on threads VI Monotype on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 40 x 40 cm R 4500
A year of hanging on threads IV Monotype on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 40 x 40 cm R 4500
A year of hanging on threads V Monotype on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 40 x 40 cm R 4500
Forgotten cloth II (detail) Monotype and stitching on Fabriano Rosapina 285gsm, 100 x 71 cm. Unframed R 16 000
Stitching through paper is suggestive of two meaning-making actions: while the connotations around mending, repairing, or suturing provide apt metaphors in this context, the time taken for the labour-intensive, repetitive process of pushing and pulling the needle through the paper also creates a space for introspection and contemplation, an interval where a deeper, inner probing could take place, a kind of post-mortem of the remains of loss.
“…if loss is known only by what remains of it, then the politics and ethics of mourning lie in the interpretation of what remains – how remains are produced and animated, how they are read and sustained.” (Eng, DL & Kazanjian, D (eds) 2003:ix)
Forgotten cloth II Monotype and stitching on Fabriano Rosapina 285gsm 100 x 71 cm Unframed R 16 000
The things we leave behind no 3 Monotype, linocut and stitching on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 100 x 71 cm Unframed R 16 000
Suspended time Linocut on Fabriano Rosapina 385gsm. 71 x 71 cm Unframed R 8500
Since 2013, I have increasingly used the motif of the boat to signify the psychological navigation of traumatic experience. As a vehicle created to transport people over water, and since water is a Jungian symbol for the unconscious, my allusion to the boat speaks of the process of steering the psyche through the treacherous waters of the aftermath of trauma; and the boats I use in my large-scale installations are always rendered as broken, or somehow incapable of travelling across water. The motif of the boat has been used in most of the prints featured in this catalogue. In the series of digital prints, Bow fragment, I have collaged and constructed the bow sections of boats from snippets of existing photography of previous works; and in the linocut and monotype series called The things we leave behind, my point of reference was my large-scale, suspended installation Suture, completed in 2018.
Suture (2018). Suspended installation view at 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London. Wood, mutton cloth stained with Eucalyptus bark ink, paper, steel cable. 4m x 1m x 1m
The things we leave behind no 2 Monotype and linocut on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 1127 x 785cm Unframed R 16 000
The things we leave behind no 5 Monotype and linocut on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 1127 x 785cm Unframed R 16 000
The things we leave behind no 4 Monotype and linocut on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 1127 x 785cm Unframed R 20 100
The things we leave behind no 1 Monotype and linocut on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 1127 x 785cm Framed R 20 100
Bow fragment II Digital print on HahnemĂźhle 300gsm 38 x 38 cm Limited edition 5 prints Unframed: 3-5/5 R3 500 Framed: 1-2/5 R 5 100
Bow fragment I Digital print on HahnemĂźhle 300gsm 38 x 38 cm Limited edition 5 prints Available: 1-5/5 Unframed R 3500
Bow fragment III Digital print on HahnemĂźhle 300gsm 33,5 x 33,5 cm Limited edition 5 prints Available: 1-5/5 Unframed R 3500
Bow fragment IV Digital print on HahnemĂźhle 300gsm 38 x 38 cm Limited edition 5 prints Available: 1-5/5 Unframed R 3500
Bow fragment revealed Digital print on HahnemĂźhle 300gsm 38 x 38 cm Limited edition 5 prints Available: 1-5/5 Unframed R 3500
One last time: Jenny’s frock Monotype on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 1127 x 785 cm Framed R 20 100
Another recurring feature in my artworks on paper results from my use of cloth fragments or redundant pieces of clothing. An example here is the series One last time. For each print, I pressed a garment onto an inked plate before placing a sheet of paper on top and pulling it through the printing press. This created a printed image showing just the garment’s impression, a trace of its existence. Then, removing the garment, I ran the plate with fresh paper through the press a second time. This produced what is known as a ghost print - again, suggesting a ghost-like visual manifestation of the garment. As remnants of pieces of fabric that have covered the body, the cloth prints evoke the fading memory of an absent human body, a verification of loss. In the end, everything is ephemeral.
Emma Willemse January 2021
One last time: the vests Monotype on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 100 x 71cm Unframed R 16 000
One last time: the camisole Monotype and linocut on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm Unframed R 16 000
One last time: Emma’s jacket II Monotype and linocut on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 100 x 71 cm Unframed R 16 000
One last time: Emma’s jacket I Monotype and linocut on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 100 x 71cm Unframed R 16 000
One last time: The prom Monotype on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 100 x 71 cm Unframed R 16 000
Forgotten cloth I Monotype and linocut on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 89,5 x 71cm Unframed R 9000
In the end everything is ephemeral I, II and II I and III: Monotype on Fabriano Rosapina 285gsm. II: Monotype and chine collĂŠ on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 35,5 x 35,5 cm each Unframed R 3900 each
The weight of it all I Monotype and chine collĂŠ on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 35,5 x 35,5cm
The weight of it all II Monotype on Fabriano Rosapina 285 gsm 35,5 x 35,5cm
R3900
R3900
Bibliography End, D.L. & Kazanjian,D. (eds). 2003. Loss: The politics of mourning. Berkeley: University of California Press