Hide-and-seek
A series of deconstructed relief prints turned into print reliefs, 2021-2026
Hide-and-Seek was produced during the 20|20 lockdown at a makeshift home print studio. The project comprises 32 individual interchangeable reliefs and one large assemblage. Working within the constraints of limited resources, I sought to explore the possibilities of a reductive printing process using two 9×12 inch linocuts. Formally, the interchangeable relief foregrounds transformation, fragmentation, and accumulation, allowing each relief to exist in multiple configurations over time. The individual elements may be endlessly manipulated and reassembled, producing shifting relationships between image, pattern, and narrative. Through this constant reconfiguration, the work resists fixed interpretation and instead invites a fluid and participatory mode of viewing. At its core, Hide-and-Seek reflects upon theories of the multiple self and the instability of identity. The endlessly variable arrangements of the reliefs evoke the innumerable roles, appearances, and internal contradictions that shape human condition. Much like memory or perception, the work is in a continual state of becoming—revealing, concealing, and reconstructing itself with each new arrangement. In this way, the project as a whole operates both as a formal investigation into modular printmaking and as a meditation on multiplicity, impermanence, and fragmentation nature of the self.