Alchemy of the Night

In this series, Andrew Totman presents a fresh direction developed from memories of the natural world; an awareness of the influence of environment, weather and the unfathomable depth of galaxy. Always inspired by light and colour, Totman has taken a glance back to recollections of a childhood fascinated by luminous, stained glass panels in church and the velvety darkness of a star-studded night sky.

Reliant on repetition of shape and form, these images are essentially abstract.  They present Totman’s symbolic use of the circle as a natural, organic form and a spiritual icon of the universe. Telescoping as though from an observatory, the spherical form is strongly resonant of the night sky, the light haloes emanating outwards from stars and moon pulsating in a dark space.

Totman has previously used these symbols. Here, however, the structured formality and exactitude  of the sphere in repetition is mitigated by the ‘hand gesture’… uneven, human rather than mechanical. These gestures are shaped by personal memories and emotions and the resulting textured surfaces shimmer with mirrored light. This painterly approach to printmaking  is a signature Totman has utilized in much of his artmaking in the past,  blurring of the boundaries between drawing, painting, printmaking.

The method of the monotype ensures that each successive pass through the press is fluidly blending the previous colour. Totman is a master colourist here, manipulating veils of transparent ink as though laying down swathes of translucent fabric. The palette is serene, sensual and mostly harmonious yet creating tension through unexpected combinations. The range of colour is varied  to include highlights of fluorescent yellows and green intended to create the illuminations of light reflected by the surfaces in the natural world and stars in the night sky. Working with two of more layers of ink and  a variable number of passes through  the press , Totman attempts to push the boundaries of colour through complex combinations as each tone intersects with the previous layer. The resulting depth appears as though through atmospheric mist or shadowy night light, ambiguously revealing and obscuring.

The process of printmaking is one of a delicate dance between the press, the plate and the artist. However, despite being methodical because of the technicalities involved, it can also be  surprising. The paper passing though the  press inserts another variable over which the artist has  no control. Printing monotypes is an experience of ‘surrender’, simultaneously very exacting and unexpected. The results will be an ‘unfolding’, a kind of improvisation evolving with each new layer.  This is the alchemy of the print , the element of chance,  setting up the possibilities and contradictions of the unexpected, a critical intersecting of magic or failure.

This series uses a square format which has been chosen because the parameters both contain and enhance the strength of the imagery. The enormity of night illumination and the vastness of the universe has been concentrated onto a fixed space, magnifying and diversifying refracted light.

Most of the work has been printed using Hannemule, a paper that is both soft and textured, selected because that uneven,  grainy surface creates significant depth to the image. Light is both absorbed and reflected in the miniscule voids and highs of the paper, rather as though one is gazing at the surface of a planet.

The abstract image is one of the purest way to articulate colour and light, as well as attempt to communicate both an  essence and the complexities of the natural world.  These images may be driven by the personal, spiritually embedded core but without a narrative, the impulse to define and categorise is released. Despite having an appearance of pervasive calm, these images remain both intense and challenging. The audience is free to absorb any meaning at will.

By necessity, printmaking is fundamentally structural.  However, although seemingly accidental and spontaneous, the years of professional experience accounts for the strength and consistency across the series.

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Andrew Totman: alchemy of the night, is at the PCA Gallery, Studio 2, Guild, 152 Sturt Street, Southbank, Victoria, June 10-27. www.printcouncil.org.au