Pier Glass

First piece from the new 4-part series of angular intaglio copper etchings printed with Schäfer Grafisk Værksted, Copenhagen. Edition of 20 signed print editions on hand-coloured paper Somerset 220gsm. Each of the new etchings explore 'transparency' through architectural forms. "Pier Glass" draws on a passage from George Eliot's (Mary Ann Evans) seminal Middlemarch (1871) novel “Your pier-glass or extensive surface of polished steel made to be rubbed by a housemaid, will be minutely and multitudinously scratched in all directions; but place now against it a lighted candle as a centre of illumination, and lo! the scratches will seem to arrange themselves in a fine series of concentric circles round that little sun. It is demonstrable that the scratches are going everywhere impartially, and it is only your candle which produces the flattering illusion of a concentric arrangement—its light falls with an exclusive optical selection.” Eliot uses the pier-glass metaphor to explore how people interpret the world through their own egos or perspectives and that human beings often view the world through a self-centered lens, mistakenly believing that everything is organized around their life and significance.