I was so enthusiastic about collatype printing that I decided to do another series based on a photograph of a World War One bunker located at 'Hill 60' (because it is 60 metres high) that I had taken whilst on my tour of the battlefields and graveyards'. This man made hill exchanged hands several times during the war and several VC's were awarded as a result of different offensive and defensive actions. In the end the hill won and I can imagine it soaked in the blood of both sides.
What attracted me to it was the symmetry of the white paths around it and the rugged mass of it's structure bullet riddled but defiant. I could imagine the soft flesh of the soldiers breaking and disintegrating as they were thrown against it. The lush surrounding vegetation and the peaceful birdsong also seemed incongruous against the knowledge of it's history and yet those bodies had been subsumed into the very soil that nourished such a verdant location.
I used the same textural surfaces as in my Spencer series but experimented in the way I inked up the blocks. On some I smeared diluted inks of different colours and then partially wiped some off and on others I used a roller. I also tried over printing areas of the bunker with a light blue to create a third colour where they overlapped. I don't think this was successful but it's a valid technique that I will experiment with in the future.
One side of the path around the bunker I did in a blood colour to represent the blood of the soldiers and then the other side of the path I did in yellow mainly to try and lift the picture. Throughout I was keen not to stick rigidly to the tonal values of the original photo and only loosely to stick to the colours, I was more interested in the mass of the bunker, the interlocking path shapes and the sensuous riot of texture in the foliage.
I planned most of it thoroughly apart from the yellow path which might or might not be a failure. The finished series of four prints are all different because I tried applying different inks in different ways with each one. I chose to use cartridge paper because I have found it to be more resilient if rubbed when wet and I wanted a crisp whiteness to reveal the textures.
I don't think the series is outrageously successful although it is very interesting and unlike anything I have ever done before. I hadn't realised texture could be so seductive. I found myself trying different things and peeling back the paper in anticipation of new discoveries each time and thoroughly enjoying the whole process.
I aimed to show the mass of the bunker which I feel I only partially achieved. I aimed to show the interesting geometry of the paths around the bunker which was more successful but still could have been more geometric. I aimed to show the riotous texture of the foliage and in this I feel I was most successful.
I think overall I lacked clarity of objective. I had in mind a sort of Graham Sutherland semi organic, semi geometric abstract and maybe I should have gone more abstract but in the end I tried to do too much and the message is consequently confused; is this a print of a bunker or a textural abstract? Actually there is probably too much texture and it would have been better to contrast some of the textural passages with some lino blocked areas of solid colour.
I felt drawn to collatype throughout this assignment and may well combine it with other techniques in my final series of Assignment Five.'
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