Proposal Abstract

The exhibition brings together three artists who explore graphic systems that communicate—either across species, through symbolic text or by biological disruption.

The collection proposes the potential to communicate and perceive a new language through different ways of reading visual markers, symbols and signs. This includes certain marks and patterns that exist in nature, the human-made glyph letterforms and those signs that emerge through physiological distortion.

Annette Cook selects native Australian fauna with white marks on a dark base (an interspecies communication function) as subject matter in her etchings and linocut prints. She presents their marks as a cross-species call out from nature, alerting us to preserve the remnants of the environment from further decline.

The distortion and cross perception that occurs through aura migraines is the basis for the screenprints by Simon Rankin. He documents this subliminal internal messaging of discord. The warning colours of yellow and black emphasise the unsettling effect of this biological experience, yet the combined energy of the work provides for an intensely engaging viewpoint.

Dale Nason works across technology, using discarded substrates, to create and repurpose letterpress fonts, shaping a new typography that is defined by the process. The letterpress prints speak of their origins and propose alternative graphic legibility.

The artworks are presented to emphasise the diversity of the messaging and the communication possibilities seen in the visual material.

The intersect between the graphic and printmaking is evident across all the work and ideas overlap between text, image, process and material. All three artists locate their practice in both art and design.