2019 Palimpsest - Jacqueline Aust

There is nothing that says 'I am here' as simply or directly as a gestural mark. Autographic marks can express a sense of individuality, captured in a moment. In an art world where print is ubiquitous, printmaking discussions are constantly peppered with questions about the mechanics of production and the autographic effect of the artist's unique mark on the aesthetic of numerous reproductions. My work explores the relationship between autographic mark making, a response to place, and the mechanics of making multiple images.

In recent years I have been building a series of work that chart the navigation of new environments. Each journey begins with marks inscribed in a matrix, a map. Accumulated layers refer to previous experience or notions of home … obscuring and revealing, tracing a path from past to future, with history as a residue to build on.

The word "palimpsest" derives from the Latin palimpsestus, which derives from the Ancient Greek παλίμψηστος (palímpsēstos, "again scraped"), a compound word that literally means "scraped clean and ready to be used again". Printmaking is often a process of making multiple images from one plate, or set of plates, resulting in an edition of works which are essentially the same. The interest of the processes of printmaking for me lies in making unique works from a set of plates so that each work has similar visual elements yet tells its own story.

Following a trip to Japan I began painting on plywood board. The processes of painting/drawing then scratching and sanding back to build an image while retaining the evidence of the original surface began to mimic the layered effect of my printmaking. The process of palimpsest on the wooden boards allows the same effect.