I tried a number of methods to incorporate texts into the prints. Hand-written text is preferrable. Apart from adding writings to the positives, I also wrote on the paper to be printed on. Although the latter gives an interesting effect, it is very labourious and difficult to get right.

This tongue-twister was apparently inspired by Mary Anning – an unlikely fossil finder of the 19th century. Born into a working class family in Lyme Regis, Dorset, she and her brother made a living finding and selling fossils to learned men and well-to-do patrons. She was not only good at finding the fossils but also poccessed remarkable skills at unearthing them. Amongst her many finds were complete intact fossilised skeletons of an Ichthyosaur and a Plesiosaur.

In addition to photo-intaglio printing, I also tried out the the old cyanotype process. A different process poses a different set of problems. Typically, cyanotype requires making (Potassium ferricyanide and Ferric ammonium citrate) solutions that are mixed in equal parts and paper is coated with the solutions. When dried (in the dark or out of uv light) the paper is exposed to the sun with an object placed on top casting shadows on the paper making an image (like a rayogram).

We found this crab on the rocks at the beach after a big storm. It is completely intact but hollowed out. The shell is very brittle (and I unfortunately was a bit rough with it and cracked its carapace a little …). It’s a Red Bait Crab (Plagusia chabrus) also called Red Rock Crab. Apparently, they are one of the fastest moving crabs. This images shows a female crab as identified by its smaller claws.

I have been continuing to experiment with photopolymer plates. Below are a couple of examples that didn’t work too well. I was trying to do 2 things here.

Recently, I started to experiment with the technique of photo-collagraphy. I’ve used it primarily as an ‘entry-level’ method, with the view to attempt polymer photo-etching (or even the more complex photo-gravure) in the future.

Here are some of animations I developed over the last couple of months. They make use of various (dead) creatures, found natural artefacts and footage I collected. I also redeployed tools, equipment and materials to furnish the sets. To diversify the ‘collection’ and fill the ‘cabinents’, I created cyanotypes of plants, rocks and various paraphenalia. I am continuing to find objects to furnish the shelves and drawers of the ‘cabinet’.

Konvolut K is a collaborative project between Redmond Bridgeman and myself. Its name references Walter Benjamin’s archives collected for the Arcades Project. The project also adopts aspects of Benjamin’s methodology by presenting a constellation of images and citations from, often random, research, into Perth, Western Australia.