An Infernal Dinner Party

Ilana Halperin

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About the edition

Ilana Halperin’s hand-coloured etchings produced in collaboration with the DCA Print Studio belong to a separate artist’s book project The Infernal Dinner Party, commissioned by Alchemy at the Manchester Museum, University of Manchester and the Arts Council of England.

The book presents an essay by Karen Holmberg that imagines divinities of Greek mythology together with an Hawaiian goddess, a medieval monster, and two geologists, Sir William Hamilton and Athanasius Kirchner, in a banquet held in a deep-sea, volcanic vent . At this bacchanal spectacle the guests tell literary and geological stories and curious anecdotes around the disastrous eruptions of Vesuvius, in 79 AD, and Krakatoa in 1883. They refer to horrifying pictures which appear in Frankenstein’s book The Modern Prometheus or Hieronymus Bosch’s allegoric oeuvre until they arrive at the conclusion ‘The earth is unthinkable, untamable, an impossible wildness’.

Only three copies of the book, hand-bound by Emma Fraser, exist. The etchings are being editioned separately at DCA Print Studio.

Suite of five prints:

  • Plate 1
  • Plate 2
  • Plate 3
  • Plate 4
  • Plate 5

Each print is priced at £840 individually or can be bought as a suite of five for £3,780. Please select individual plate or suite before adding to basket. 

Year 2013
Edition of 5
Media Autographic etchings on Fabriano Artistico Traditional White (640gsm) paper. Each print individually hand-coloured by the artist with watercolour
Dimensions 42.4 x 30 cm (image 29.5 x 20.5 cm)
Signature Signed, numbered and dated by artist

About Ilana Halperin

Born in 1973 in New York, USA, Ilana Halperin lives and works in Glasgow. She received her Master of Fine Arts from Glasgow School of Art, Scotland and her Bachelor of Arts from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Recent solo exhibitions include in Berlin, Steine at the Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charité, and Hand Held Lava at Schering Stiftung.

Group exhibitions include Volcano at Compton Verney in Warwickshire, England; Estratos, PAC Murcia, Spain; Polar Dispatches, Portland Museum of Art, Maine. She received numerous awards, including Creative Scotland Artist Award, British Council Darwin Now Award and Alchemy Fellowship at the Manchester Museum. Halperin is first Artist Fellow at the National Museum of Scotland, with the solo exhibition ‘Ilana Halperin- The Library’ at the museum from 24 May – 29 September 2013.

Own Art 
Spread the cost of buying artwork with Own Art and purchase An Infernal Dinner Party by Ilana Halperin in 10 monthly payments of £84 (representative 0% APR). Email onlineshop@dca.org.uk for more information or to buy.

Pick up in Store

If you would like to buy online and then collect your edition at DCA, please select the Pick up option at checkout. We will then be in touch to arrange a convenient collection time with you.