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Judy Watson
1959 Munduberra
experimental beds (2012)
6 colour etchings – plate 49.5 x 37.5 cm
editions of 20 on Hahnemühle paper 70.0 x 54.0 cm
publishers Judy Watson, grahame galleries + editions/numero uno publications and The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, University of Virginia (UVa)
view Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection
10 folios numbers 1/20 – 10/20
single numbers 11/20 – 20/20
experimental beds 1
experimental beds 2 – 6
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About Judy Watson’s experimental beds
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”5159″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” onclick=”kalium_lightbox”][vc_column_text]experimental beds 1 (2012)
3-plate etching with chine collé
Left profile: Aboriginal Artist/Activist, Richard Bell, with whom Watson shared a studio in Brisbane. Right profile: Lindsey T. Jackson, an African American woman, who lives in Brisbane and has family in Virginia. (Profiles repeated in experimental beds 5). Vegetables including squash are from Monticello’s ‘experimental beds’. Archaeological finds incorporated in etching include a cowrie shell, ring and a coin with unknown figurehead on obverse. Hair-like threads refer experimental beds 5. Architectural drawing is of The Rotunda, First Floor Plan and is repeated in experimental beds 6.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”5160″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” onclick=”kalium_lightbox”][vc_column_text]experimental beds 2 (2012)
3-plate etching
Pavilion No. III W. Corinthian Palladio, the architectural drawing used here, is repeated in experimental beds 5. Images of nails from archaeological digs dominate. The etching includes drawings of charcoal kilns from the era of the nailery.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”5161″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” onclick=”kalium_lightbox”][vc_column_text]experimental beds 3 (2012)
3-plate etching
The elk antlers drawing, which forms the centrepiece of both experimental beds 3 and experimental beds 5, is of antlers collected by Lewis and Clarke during their expedition. They now hang in Monticello’s Entrance Hall. Artefacts referencing slave presence: nails from the nailery, a bucket handle, shards of pottery and hooks and fasteners from slave women’s dresses. Hooks and fasteners allude to the sexual exploitation of enslaved women by white men on the plantations. These images are overlaid with the drawing of Pavilion VII W. Doric Palladio.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”5162″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” onclick=”kalium_lightbox”][vc_column_text]experimental beds 4 (2012)
2-plate etching
Jefferson’s drawing of Library, Elevation of the Rotunda forms the centrepiece.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”5163″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” onclick=”kalium_lightbox”][vc_column_text]experimental beds 5 (2012)
4-plate etching
At Watson’s solo exhibition, waterline (2011), held at the Australian Embassy in Washington, the artist met Eve Ferguson, an African American woman. The shape, top-middle, is inspired by the back of Ferguson’s hair. Hair-like threads appear as connecting lines both here and in experimental beds 1. Hair carries DNA and is often seen as a trace of somebody’s presence/absence. Elk antlers (refer experimental beds 3). Profiles (refer experimental beds 1). Architectural drawing (refer experimental beds 2). Archaeological artefacts (refer experimental beds 2 and 4).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”5164″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” onclick=”kalium_lightbox”][vc_column_text]
experimental beds 6 (2012)
2-plate etching with chine collé
Architectural drawing (refer experimental beds 1).
Architectural drawings courtesy Jefferson Papers of the University of Virginia, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Images © Judy Watson[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]