Sequence

This set of prints was conceived whilst listening to the Italian composer Luciano Berio's (1925-2003) Sequenzas I-XIV for Solo Instruments. Berio wrote the pieces over a period of 34 years; they explore the virtuoso and technical possibilities of the individual instruments, including the human voice.

The resulting works are not a direct response to the individual pieces of music: they are more about my feeling at the time of listening. The music was on in the background when I was drawing and it felt appropriate, therefore, that I should name the prints after Berio's work. On the whole his Sequenzas form contrasts between timbres and textures, a dialogue between chordal (harmonic) and linear (melodic) sounds. In some of them one can only hear bare wisps of sound, or what appears as a gesture of sound, then dense superimposed layers that give a suggestion of spatial depth.

It is these contrasts of tone, texture and line that I picked up whilst making my initial drawings and the subsequent drawing on the litho stones, contrasting thicker black lines over and next to a layering of gestural marks, blotches and blobs.

I reduced this process still further in the mono-prints where I have worked into the main image by using pumice, sandpaper and nitric acid. Sections of the print are then selected by placing an acetate mask over the inked-up stone.

Currently the series consists of lithographic prints- Sequence 1 to 5 (printed in small editions) and Sequence 5.1(edition of 12), lithographic monoprints Sequence 1.1a to 1.1f, Sequence 2.1 to 2.12 and Sequence 3.1 to 3.26.
In addition there are several drawings made using ink and bleach.

A selection of the works are presented here and they are all available to view at Eames Fine Art Gallery, London
www.eamesfineart.com