Deconstructed Relics

I wanted to explore the visual components of the 'relic windows' I have been working with recently in my digital photographs and aquatint prints. The details within the Palermo relic became a kind of visual language that I wanted to deconstruct and imagine the materiality of, piece by piece.

Relic window, digital photograph

Palermo relic, aquatint on Somerset paper

I collated a range of materials to embody each element of the Palermo relic, as I viewed it from the photographs, edits and resultant print. I realised I had come to view it almost like a diagram of plant cell, with its components held together by the outer membrane. Therefore, some of the 'collages' I created have painted mushroom gills amongst the assortment of materials.

The majority of the assemblages contain: cut-out and collaged photographs, scored tracing paper, fragment of volcanic rock, thin sheet of copper/brass, assorted glass tiles, coloured perspex.

In setting up the collages, I was essentially playing with the materials in varying arrangements. I had been reading The Reliquary Effect by Cynthia Hahn, who writes that the relic is 'enframed' and 'enclosed' by the reliquary (Hahn, 2017. p.8). With this I mind, I positioned the glass sheets so that they partially enclosed the other elements, as well as reflected and distorted them.

Lithograph, collage

Assemblages, photographic collage and mixed media

I edited a selection of the photographs because I wanted them to form more of a coherent collection; as iterations of the same components, rather like a visual language. In black and white, they became more about layered forms in relation on one another.

Kitasono Katue, VOU issue 57

Kitasono Katue, 'Une Femme', VOU issue 109

Kitasono Katue, Plastic poem (2), VOU issue 111

Kitasono Katue, VOU issue 65

Kitasono Katue, VOU issue 67

I had in mind the work of the Japanese Avant Garde poet Kitsono Katue, who is known for his connections to Surrealism and Dada, as well as Concrete poetry. Alongside written poetry, Kitasono Katue created, throughout the 1950's and 60's, a series of photographs which he termed 'Plastic Poetry'.

Accompanying his photographs in an issue of VOU Magazine in 1966, Kitasono Katue wrote a manifesto of sorts, pronouncing his Plastic Poems the 'birth of new poetry'. He wrote: 'I will create poetry through the viewfinder of my camera, out of pieces of paper scraps, boards, glasses, etc.'

Kitasono Katue, page from Vou magazine, issue 102, pp. 26 - 27, 1965

In arranging the collaged fragments amongst the other objects in the photographs, I felt that I was finding different visual ways to say the same thing, or variations of the same thing. In most of the compositions the rock 'relic' is central within the oval 'cell' shape. In others, it is apart, caught and distorted behind glass. In many ways, creating and taking these photographs has been one of the simplest things I have done on the course so far.

However, it feels important because it has allowed me to play with some of my key ideas: deconstructing and re-making the reliquary forms which I find so fascinating; creating layers through transparencies (tracing paper, glass, perspex), finding meaning through fragmentation and repetition. Also, the process felt light, playful and productive, which runs counter to some of my experience of printmaking! It made me want to continue being playful with materials, and made me excited about the possibilities.

Altered Relics

Digital Experimentation

The gallery below shows original photographs I have taken in Lisbon, Portugal (2022) and Palermo, Sicily (2023) of relics and reliquaries displayed in various museums and religious buildings. My long-held fascination for them encompasses a lot of my interests: objects, artefacts, ecclesiastical ephemera, human remains and the mythologies of faith.

The reliquary is the shrine-object which houses or contains the relic which itself is the remains of a person or site of religious significance. Relic derives from Old French relique, and from the classical Latin reliquus meaning 'remains', 'remnants' or 'that which remains' (Online Etymology Dictionary).

In my work, I have become interested in the reliquary window; the section of the reliquary which situates the relic behind a lens of glass. Within this window, the relic itself is often displayed tiny paper labels which identify the name of the person or site of veneration, and the classification of the remains (eg. bone, hair, skin, blood etc). What also interests me are the other ornamental details surrounding the relic. It leads me to wonder who created them; whose 'job' it is; who is the artist?

Original photographs of reliquaries from Palermo, Sicily (2023) and Lisbon, Portugal (2022)

In my practice, I enjoy the process of playing with photographs on Photoshop with the purpose of re-inventing and transforming, and to create new compositions and ideas. In the case of these reliquary photographs, I first wanted to isolate the relic window by cutting them from the reliquary. I then digitally placed them on a dark photographic background and made the whole image high contrast black and white. In this way, the lens-like form of the object with its detail becomes the focal point of the image.

Palermo relic (detail)

In the following photographs, I was interested in removing the context of the relic as much as possible. The box-like reliquary on the left intrigued me because the relic, a section of spinal vertibrae, seems lost behind the curious beads and filigree in the foreground. I am part-way through an aquatint from this work, and I have started to call it Relic Still Life because it has a strange Memento Mori sense, but because of the metallic floral arrangement, seems part of another, almost steam-punk, world.

I enjoy finding digital methods to enhance particular qualities of photographs and alter the way we perceive the subject. In Relic Still Life, I found a tool which enhanced certain colour values within the photograph which is why the centre of the flower forms are so light and soft, like smudged chalk. In the final colourful edit I split the photograph into its highlights, midtones and shadows, then altered the hue of each to make the image look more like a painting or a monoprint.

black and white edit

Sepia edit

Split colour edit

Aquatint: Relic Still Life

Zinc aquatint plate with Rhinds varnish to stop out during the 3rd etch

Zinc aquatint plate prior to inking

Reference photograph and first print (over inked)

Aquatint print, slightly over-inked in background

Best aquatint print showing the dark background tone

I am still working on the print Relic Still Life, burnishing the details out from the dark background. In particular, my aim is to burnish the bright white areas to give them the soft hazy quality of those in the photograph. As with my other aquatint of the individual oval relic, I want the object to reveal itself through glints of light.

As I look at this print alongside the photograph, I am aware that there is something in the photograph which is lacking from the print; that is, the strange digital quality combined with the diffused light of the edit. It leads me to consider that this photographic quality is important to me. I would like to print a section of this photograph as a small photo etching to see if this preserves the feel of the digital edit.

Relic Still Life (work in progress), aquatint on Somerset paper, 15 x 23cm, 2024

Relic, Etching

For as long as I remember, I have been fascinated by religious relics and reliquaries, and I have built up a collection of photographs from various museums and religious buildings on travels to Italy and Portugal. In the photographs below, I have documented the original photograph of a particular relic in Palermo, and some of my Photoshop edits. In the final black and white edit, I have cropped what I call the 'window' of the reliquary; that is, the glass-fronted section of the object which displays the holy relic-object. In this case, it is the central fragment of bone labelled as belonging to Saint Rosalia, patron saint of Palermo, Sicily.

Relics (Palermo Cathedral, Sicily), original photograph, 2023

Relic (Palermo), digital photograph, 2024

Relic window, digital photograph, 2024

Relic window, digital photograph, 2024

Relic window, digital photograph, 2024

I wanted to create an aquatint of this photograph which has the quality of emerging from the darkness, rather like a mezzotint. I began by polishing a small plate of zinc to a high shine, which I hoped would result in the sharp white glints in the photograph. Then I applied a layer of rosin; smoked the plate and then began to paint the white highlights in Rhinds varnish with a very thin paintbrush.

I continued a process of stopping out tiny areas and etching in the acid a total of 4 times. I left the plate in the bath for the maximum amount of time during the last etch, with the aim of making the background as dark as possible. I was concerned that I had over-etched, which might result in a lightening of the plate. However, when I inked and printed I was pleased with the result.

After the first etch. Rhinds varnish is stopping out the 'white' highlights of the image

The plate after 4 layers of etching and the varnish and aquatint has been removed

Showing the aquatint 3 plates I worked on simultaneously in the etching workshop

I used the smallest ball burnisher to pick out details. I wanted to bring out just enough to show the detail of the object, but keep it indistinct and still emerging from the dark background. I liked the idea of much of the object being made up of glints or light rather than tone.

Relic window, aquatint before burnishing, 14 x 21cm, 2024

Aquatint after burnishing

First stage of Aquatint Aquatint after burnishing

Relic window, aquatint print on Somerset paper, 14 x 20cm, 2024