Under the Avalanche 2, Denis Brown, 2004.
8 sheets of hand engraved & etched picture glass, layered 6mm apart over a background sheet of watercolour paper, which bears a mono printed image composed from blurred scans from the glass engraving.
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Size including frame: Top edge 23" or 59cm; Left edge 30" or 76cm ; Depth 3" or 7cm.
Description
The central area features a vortex of engraved lettering, whirling outward in 3-D from a black central cavity. The top right corner of the asymmetric form features layers of frosted glass stepping downward over the 3 dimensional depth. A curving spike is etched into the glass, protruding from the bottom, and the title "Under the Avalanche" is etched in sans serif type on this spike. Seen in context of themes I have visited in other glass art, the central vortex suggests a peering eye and also a womb.
Text
"Under the Avalanche", a poem by Catherine Byron, 2003, where the poet imagines herself trapped "in the grey darkness of snow", yet finds solace in comparing her freezing isolation chamber to the near foetal safety of "reading under my bedclothes with a torch". Since beginning work with her text, the author has told me that the poem emerged "from the state of being morphine-happy", following life-saving surgery.
In this flat reproduction, all legibility is lost, as is the 3-D effect, but in the original it is possible to focus on individual layers and decipher parts of the text. certainly the top layer of glass is legible on close inspection- it reads: "re-breathing my own hot breath... as if I were home and dry, reading under my bedclothes with a torch".
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©2007 Denis Brown | www.quillskill.com |
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