I located the Italian Etching,
Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2025 6:24 am
It’s an in-between space, and in the show it is a real place but also a psychological idea – a place of arrival and departure with a somewhat other worldly atmosphere. By combining observed photos of the Smickle Inn spliced with found fragments of etchings and imagery from the Warburg Photographic Collection I wanted to build on this other worldliness. The result is a series of works where time seems to behave non-linearly and explores the colonial history of the harbour and its connected structures.
In your work Frikandel, you depicted a view from a Dutch snack bar and incorporated an etching of Mount Etna from the Warburg’s Photographic Collection. What was it about this volcanic image that resonated with you, and how did it shift the meaning or context of the painting?
Frikandel, 2023 dated 1669, in the magic and science folders in the Photographic physician database Collection. I remember flicking through many incredible images in that folder, but being stopped in my tracks by this scene of the smoke billowing over the bay of Syracuse. I look for shocks in the studio, moments where what you originally thought the painting is achieving is undermined or changed in someway. The thought process went along the lines of: ‘what is the most unlikely thing you would see gazing through the window of a North Sea facing Dutch snack bar’? I experimented with various images and scenes I had uncovered in the Warburg Archive, but after much trial and error, the section of the smoke billowing across the sea from Mount Etna supplied that jolt in the studio. When I removed the screen and the sheets of paper, it felt strange to see these two disparate elements conjoined, but somehow completely believable.
In your work Frikandel, you depicted a view from a Dutch snack bar and incorporated an etching of Mount Etna from the Warburg’s Photographic Collection. What was it about this volcanic image that resonated with you, and how did it shift the meaning or context of the painting?
Frikandel, 2023 dated 1669, in the magic and science folders in the Photographic physician database Collection. I remember flicking through many incredible images in that folder, but being stopped in my tracks by this scene of the smoke billowing over the bay of Syracuse. I look for shocks in the studio, moments where what you originally thought the painting is achieving is undermined or changed in someway. The thought process went along the lines of: ‘what is the most unlikely thing you would see gazing through the window of a North Sea facing Dutch snack bar’? I experimented with various images and scenes I had uncovered in the Warburg Archive, but after much trial and error, the section of the smoke billowing across the sea from Mount Etna supplied that jolt in the studio. When I removed the screen and the sheets of paper, it felt strange to see these two disparate elements conjoined, but somehow completely believable.