new print - Stephen Hoskins

This is my latest artwork finished in May it was and is intended for my one man exhibition in Hong Kong. However due to Covid 19, it will not now be shown until next year. This is the largest artwork I have ever made, even though it only weighs a couple of kilos!

Based upon the attempts at creating a flying machine before the Wright Brothers, Lilienthal was probably the most successful of the early flight pioneers. Purportedly flying several hundred feet in an undocumented attempt. Whilst the work contains an amalgam and the essence of Lilienthal’s designs, it bears little resemblance to the flying machines.

The feathers are screen printed on laser cut plywood and covered in 13 gsm Japanese tissue. The wings are inkjet printed onto 30 gsm Japanese tissue, based upon a Chinoisere wallpaper design, first used in a stately home Wooten-under-Edge in Gloucestershire in the 1780’s which copied the Chinese style. The Cantonese text on the wings are sayings related to my daily life, translated into Cantonese. In the same manner as the slogans one sees on T-Shirts in China and Asia, which have English translations from Chinese, that make little sense to an English speaker.

Lilienthal Feathers 2.4 metres x 1.5 metres

’70’s Wallpaper’ Screenprint with Japanese paper and carbon fibre rod

This is the first screenprint that I completed last year in my new studio. It has taken a while to get the studio up and running, but although small is well equipped and functions very well if I am very tidy. This print pairs with the print I made at the Frans Masreel Centrum in Belgium a couple of years ago called ‘French Peacocks.

Both prints are based around my interest in using wallpaper motifs in my prints that have a visual resonance for me. The peacocks are derived from our current wallpaper in our lounge. The 70’s wallpaper is derived from my bedroom at home when I was 17. The 70’s were all about orange and a sludge brown ochre.

You can just make out the peacocks in the detail above and the motifs in the new print are classic 1970’s. I am sure these days that the bright orange is somewhat more luminous than was the case in the 70’s. My memory of my bedroom was that the orange had a lot more black in it and was really quite dull by 21st Century standards.

Printed main image before assembly — Main image before assembly

Here is the main background image before assembly and below is the printed Nepalese paper before assembly. I like to make life hard for myself by not just creating a flat print. The nepalese paper is then cut using an old fashioned cutting compass and scalpel. Cutting 25 takes quite a while but I think the result is worth it in the end

Finally the print is assembled and the carbon fibre rod is attached.

Tag: new print

Lilienthal Feathers

First print from the new studio