M A R K  B O V E Y

In Formation (Movements Within and Between 2023),toner-resist, spit bite aquatint and photo polymer etching on black Arches cover
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Artist Statement:

My work begins by searching for images and texts from the oceans of documents within and between cultures over the past 600+ years. The images are simultaneously technological time markers, material culture and records of humanities rich and complicated past. I search archives, antiquarian books stores, libraries, and more recently online to locate source materials. I use digital tools to reconstruct, combine and distort the fragments. They are often tied to our problematic colonial past, while also revealing the evolution of a shared fascination with natural, medical, or theoretical science. I then translocate the selected findings into new arrangements and reload them into a printing matrix (digital file, etching plate, or lithographic stone). Sometimes the play yields a form of alchemy or "mashup", either by chance or design. The reintroduction often activates new agency, and the images become part of a field of possibilities to be traversed by the viewer who brings their own unique perspective(s). The goal is to invite speculation, to problematize troubling histories and ultimately find a conversations within and between the formal aesthetic mix. The compression of the images into a printing matrix allows the broad range of subjects from the environment, to philosophy, politics and fundamental ethical questions to confront and to bind to each other.