Somewhere between Printmaking, Photography and Drawing: Viewing contradictions within the printed image

This article is based on a paper given at 'Hybrid Practices', a symposium held at Chelsea College of Arts and published in Journal of Visual Art Practice This paper examines a number of questions raised through my fine art practice, concerning how processes inherent in printmaking, photography and drawing may be brought together within a single image to open up new possibilities of reading surface and space and bring about new apprehensions of temporality. The central focus of this paper explores how surface and space are perceived and understood within an image, particularly where both digital photographic printmaking and hand-drawn marks co-exist. Using a number of my own artworks I will expose what I describe as a perceptual clash emerging on the printed picture plane. I argue that this clash emerges as a result of the ontological nature of certain printmaking processes, which embed certain visual elements within the resulting printed image. A number of key aspects around visibility of surface, orientation, materiality and time within the photographic printed image and the experience of tactile touch during making of the image will be investigated and will offer valuable insights into how and why this new perceptual space emerges within the image.