E.181 The Bay 2018

• I. 1st state of 4, 2018

  

  Etching and burnishing. An enormous cargo ship, viewed from the shore of the bay, is beached at a dock in tidal shallows. In the foreground wooden fence posts are driven into the ground. Continuous with the posts are two streetlamps and one of these is also a utility pole without wires. Muddy terrain fills the foreground. The bay is a brief sliver of calm water behind the ship, while a city in the background has the barest trace of white smog rising into the sky. There are a few light atmospheric marks in the sky. Although some of these appear to be incidental marks from the plate, the most intentional are straight lines at the centre left, and diagonal lines at the upper right limits of the plate. After etching, Amor has burnished some of his cross-hatching at the bow of the ship, and overall this upper-front section of the hull is slightly lighter than the rest of the vessel.

  Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1/1’, lower centre: ‘The Bay’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R. Amor ‘18’.

• II. 2nd state of 4, 2018

  The cargo ship has been burnished back, particularly on the front half and rear quarter of the hull, the cargo and equipment on deck and the cabins above the bow. The ship’s reflection in the water has also been burnished. Cross-hatching directly below the ship has been drawn over with vertical drypoint lines. Directly below this new parallel drypoint lines have been added, extending to the right of the reflection, past the end of the ship. The new lines close the space between the ship and the shore, whereas in the previous state there was a gap where the water reflected the sky. Amor has also burnished the mud in the foreground, where it recedes up the left-hand side of the image. The mud in the distance, at the centre left appearing under the city, has had new diagonal lines etched. These new sparse lines turn an area of water from the previous state into an area of mud. In the sky in the upper left at the back of the ship, Amor has burnished away a mass of atmospheric marks in the sky.

   

  Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1/2’, lower centre: ‘The Bay’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R. Amor ‘18’.

• III. 3rd state of 4, 2018

  

  The most significant change to this state is the removal of the streetlamp on the telegraph pole via burnishing. Removing this element gives a cleaner and clearer distinction between the mass of the ship and the posts in the foreground. Amor has added drypoint lines to the cabin area on the bow and on the hull directly beneath this. He has used a drypoint tool to add crosshatched lines to the cargo and equipment on the deck of the ship. The mud in the foreground also features parallel additions in drypoint throughout, deepening the existing etched lines.

  Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1/3’, lower centre: ‘The Bay’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R. Amor ‘18’.

• IV. 4th and final state, 2018

  

  Drypoint burr has been dramatically added to this state, to darken the the ship and its cargo, the ship’s reflection in the water, the posts and the shadows cast by the mud in the foreground and at the centre left of the image. Amor has also selectively wiped the ink, leaving dramatic plate tone that sharply silhouettes the ship against the sky. This wiping also darkens the horizontal marks in the sky centre left, which emphasises the two lines of white smog rising from the city in the distance.

  Impression with plate tone, selectively wiped, on Hahnemühle paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1/4’, lower centre: ‘The Bay’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R. Amor ‘18’.

• Edition, 2018

  Edition of ten numbered impressions, on wove BFK Rives paper, printed by Simon White at the Australian Print Workshop, Fitzroy (Melbourne), 2018. The edition included a Bon à tirer proof, one artist’s proof, and a proof. Each impression is inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘[status of impression]’ [or] ‘[1 through 10]/10’; lower centre: ‘The Bay’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R. Amor 18’. Chop mark embossed in lower right corner: ‘APW [within horizontal rectangle]’.

• Edition impression, 2018 (Featured Image)

  

• Comment

  This work was based on a plein air painting created at Yarraville. The vision of the beached cargo ship, however, was entirely invented by the artist, and is intended to evoke a world ground down to a halt.

  Amor has captured the awesome size of modern shipping vessels, and by beaching this ship the artist has created a mood of eerie calm. Although its cargo remains onboard, the giant ship could be abandoned. The ship is pointed towards the distant city and, in a gesture that connects the two, white smog from city is rising across the bay and appears to cross over with the lines of the ship’s bow.

  The four states of the print take the image from the relatively even, grey mesh of lines in the first state to the dark, tonal modelling of the final state. As the ship is progressively darkened with plate tone and drypoint, it becomes more imposing, acquiring some of the qualities of a silhouette backlit by an overcast sky.