Bottom of the Loch (Unframed)

Andrew Black

Magnify

About the edition

These experimental prints were developed by artist Andrew Black in response to author Ursula K Le Guin's writing of landscapes, and what  Black speaks of as ‘the complicated fantasy landscapes of the archipelago in the Earthsea series’. 

Drawn from Black’s video work Revenge Fantasy, commissioned by DCA for the exhibition Seized by the Left Hand, these editions are a personal consideration of the layered complexity of the Scottish landscape, and how it is written, and overwritten, in various narratives. References to the miltarised West Coast of Scotland sit alongside inclusions of the natural landscape, from its topography to specific flora and fauna causing us to reconsider representations of nature and its hospitality, or inhospitality from different perspectives: 
  
"…[it] tries to navigate all these elements in a sensory way…the anxiety and paranoia of the industrial machinery of state violence lurking under the surface… from a queer position - a position with a different set of identifications and sympathies than of the macho, masculinised narratives of bodily endurance and wilderness attached to the leisure industry framings of Scotland's mountainous landscapes." Andrew Black

Black includes intentionally opaque layers of narrative text, developed through playful research in DCA Print Studio. The ‘armored subaquatic bodies’ of great diving beetles, an erotic drawing, a sword symbol, a branch of bog myrtle - all sit together, deliberately messy and hard-to-read:
  
"We decided to make the image entirely by woodcut - I was excited by the intrusion of the material and how unsuited it is to making a nuanced photographic print...I like this idea of disguise - something behaving like something else - ...We spent a lot of time trying to make each print as imperfect as possible…no two will look exactly the same."Andrew Black 
  
Each edition is uniquely embossed with plant detritus gathered by the artist and signed by Black using gestural traces of cow dung from the Isle of Skye, circumventing the traditional act of the artist’s name as signature. 

Year 2019 - 2022
Edition of 10
Media Laser-engraved woodblock print on Somerset Satin 300gsm paper with plant
detritus and cow dung from common grazings on the Isle of Skye
Dimensions 54.5 x 40.5cm (unframed)
Signature Each edition is uniquely embossed with plant detritus gathered by the artist and signed by Black using gestural traces of cow dung from the Isle of Skye (numbered and dated on verso)

About Andrew Black

Andrew Black is an artist, born in 1990 in Leeds. He has lived and worked in Glasgow since 2009. His recent moving-image projects explore social and ecological narratives in specific places, drawing on methodologies such as oral history recording, local history, speculative storytelling, and collage. Black served on the committee of Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, in 2016 and 2017, and is the recipient of the 2021 Margaret Tait Award; with a new commission forthcoming as part of this award.

 

Framing
This edition can be purchased with a custom frame made from ash, a tree native to Scotland, intended to encapsulate the plant detritus as it detaches from the paper surface over time. Bottom of the Loch (Framed) can be purchased here for collection only. Framing of this work is done on demand and may take several weeks.

This listing is for an unframed edition. The artist’s framing specification can be provided for reference. All editions will be packed with care using archival methods, but due to the nature of this work, fragments of the plant detritus may detach during shipment.

For enquiries and further options relating to shipping and framing of this work please contact onlineshop@dca.org.uk

Own Art 
Spread the cost of buying artwork with Own Art and purchase Bottom of the Loch by Andrew Black in 10 monthly payments of £42 (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 Pick up at checkout. We will then be in touch to arrange a convenient collection time with you.