E.121 Empire of the sea 1999; reworked 2001

• I. 1st state of 5, 1999

  

  Etching and burnishing. A large, decrepit ocean buoy rests on the edge of a dock. A figure, dwarfed by the object, stands partially obscured beside it at the right. A ladder, a loop of thick rope, and two pylons, lie in the foreground. Along the left is a fragment of a building and on the right a freestanding wall. The subject is etched with closely spaced hatching and cross-hatching and the buoy is lightly burnished in the highlighted areas. The sky is flecked with foul biting. The plate mark measures 202 x 157 mm.

  Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1’; lower centre: ‘Empire of the Sea’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R. Amor 99’.

• II. 2nd state of 5, 1999

  

  The plate has been cut down to 172 x 159 mm, so less sky is present. Drypoint has been added to many areas of the plate, including the buoy’s cylinder. The highlights of the central tier of the buoy have, accordingly, been further lightened with a burnisher.

  Impression with faint plate tone in the sky area, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘2’; lower centre: ‘Empire of the Sea’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R. Amor 99’.

• III. 3rd state of 5, 1999

  Drypoint has been added to much of the buoy’s surface and to the right wall. The upright pylons at left have been darkened with drypoint along the left and lightened with a burnisher on the right. The small mooring post to the left of the buoy has been filled with drypoint.

  Impression on wove BFK Rives paper with watermark, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘3 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Empire of the Sea’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R. Amor 99’.

• IV. 4th state of 5, 1999

  More drypoint has been added to the buoy, to the right wall and to the upright pylons at left.

  Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘4 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Empire of the Sea’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R. Amor 99’.

• First edition, 1999

  Nominal edition of ten, but only five impressions were printed and numbered. These were printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. The edition included a bon à tirer impression and two artist’s proofs, each differently printed. Each impression is inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘[status of impression]’ [or] ‘[1 through 5]/10’; lower centre: ‘Empire of the Sea’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R. Amor 99’.

  Edition sheet size: 380 x 280 mm

• V. 5th and final state, 2001 (Featured Image)

  

  The plate was reworked on 14 May 2001. Regular cross-hatching has been added to the sky, across the top of the plate, and some of it has been burnished away. The sky is further speckled with foul biting, and a series of loose lines appear above the right wall. The upright pylons at left have been lightened with a burnisher.

• Second edition, 2001

  Edition of ten numbered impressions, on wove Magnani Acqueforti paper, printed by Martin King at the Australian Print Workshop, Fitzroy (Melbourne), July 2001. The edition included one artist’s proof and two APW workshop proofs. Each impression is inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘[status of impression]’ [or] ‘[1 through 10]/10’; lower centre: ‘Empire of the Sea’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R. Amor 01’. Blind embossed chop mark lower right corner: ‘APW [within rectangle]’.

  Edition sheet size: 380 x 280 mm

• Comment

  Amor’s image of an old buoy, pulled from the sea, originated in the watercolour Buoy at Port Welshpool, 1999 (Castlemaine Art Museum), which was painted on the pier at Port Welshpool, near Wilsons Promontory, Victoria. The architectural elements in E.121, however, are derived from drawings by the artist of a disused coal-loading site at Blackwattle Bay, Sydney. Amor also worked his composition in oils, in the large painting Empire of the sea, 1999, for which he completed several studies, in charcoal, in conté crayon and in oils (Perry 2013). In 2000 he made a lithograph of the subject, but with the scene depicted in reverse.

  In the Castlemaine watercolour, the height of the buoy is conveyed by the presence beside it of a tin barrel drum: the buoy appears roughly four times the height of the drum. In the etching, however, Amor has vastly increased the size of the buoy, making it improbably large as it dwarfs not only the human figure beside it but also the infrastructure of the dock. In working the second state of the print, Amor further amplified the dramatic sense of scale in his composition. By cutting down the plate, along its top edge, he eliminated part of the sky, thereby intensifying the focus on the buoy with its massive bulk.

  This gigantic, once-useful object, from which seaweed now hangs, has become a useless artefact from the past, in a scene that evokes decay, decrepitude and the passing of time, and tells of the empire of the sea conquering the dominion of humankind.