Marker's Commentary

Highly accomplished in its material handling, Shanghai - Layered and Remembered highlights a confidence in applying relief printmaking conventions to support an array of cultural intentions. Disjointed and fragmented images conceptualise ideas of memory that allude to an historical survey of China’s rich cultural history and its subsequent challenges through successive regimes, the haste of change blurring focus and only allowing fleeting and fractured memories to permeate.

There is a sophistication and control in the diverse range of mark making evident through the superior cutting of the blocks. The decision to layer and print on Chinese propaganda posters combined with the use of laser technologies supports ideas of perceived progress, industrialisation, urban development and a shifting infrastructure. Overall, this is a refined and carefully composed work that moves well beyond the level of everyday observations.