Charlotte Hodes

Graphic work

1 In the Shadows #1, laser cut relief print, 52 x 38cm
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Graphic work created since 2015 takes the form of lasercut relief prints, printed at Oficina Bartolomeu Dos Santos (OBS) Tavira, Portugal and published by Culford Press.

In the Shadows ♯1-11 2015 consists of eleven laser cut relief prints on Somerset Satin, @image 29.5 x 19cm, paper 52 x 38cm, in editions of 3.

In the Shadows form part of an overall body of work entitled Dressed in Pattern made over a two year period and completed in 2016 which drew upon landscape, text & decorative motifs sourced from the Spode Museum Trust archive of engravings. The work also includes the installation Spode Trees and Dressed Silhouettes, single and sequenced ceramic plates and paintings. Dressed in Pattern is the result of many years of involvement with ceramics at the Spode factory and an Arts Council England grant (awarded with artist Paul Scott) for research and development in 2014.

Using imagery derived from the Spode Museum Trust archive of engravings, this series was developed from a number of drawings which in turn were laser cut into wood providing the matrices from which surface prints could be made. Over a period of two weeks, working at OBS, these wood blocks were printed in a variety of combinations and sequences as well as utilizing the emboss.

The imagery of women in the form of silhouettes are dressed in pattern and occupy a flat, patterned landscape save for shadows and negative forms which have as much presence as the silhouettes themselves. The prints are also a reminder that the decoration on the Spode ware was originally created through engravings on copper which were then printed and transferred onto the ware.