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Michael Phillips
1959 Brisbane

Black Soil I and Black Soil II (2019)

Black Soil I $375.00 
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prints
artists’ books  /  books by artists
multiples[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_single_image image=”10954″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” onclick=”kalium_lightbox”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]Black Soil I (2019) $375.00 contact

Black Soil II (2019) not available

Both books start with what is possible on, and with the page, an open ended beginning—where there is a conscious absence of planning regarding page order, imposition and orientation—not that those aspects are not important, but there’s something beforehand, something else driving it. The selection of the print matrix, the initial colour choice, overprinting, the layering of the sheets and along the way—what may or may not happen, a mistake or unknown—followed by looking at the finished sequence and making an informed decision about how it goes together—the process reveals things you would never really conceive of as a whole. From these folded interactions you get these unexpected, sometimes beautiful, sometimes clunky relationships occurring— driven by the process of making, by drawing on available ‘tools’ and print matrixes that create a sequence of ‘printable events’ involving making a mark on a mark on a mark which are highlighted by the absence of a mark.
Five separate blocks were used, printed both sides on one sheet of Hosho Hik paper. The ‘flat’ print-work was the starting point for the work. This sheet, once printed on the reverse was then folded (first horizontally, then twice vertically) to form the internals and final imposition of the book, a separate sheet was printed for the cover.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Black Soil I and Black Soil II (2019) artist book series
Each 16 pages plus cover
10 colour relief print on Hosho Hik
Published by artist
Edition of 12 + 2 APs.
27 x 19.5cm

Black Soil I $375.00

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[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Michael Phillips on his Black Soil artist books

Over the past eleven years I have spent considerable time working in and around the foothills of Mt. Mistake, Thornton, at the headwaters of the Lockyer Valley, southwest of Brisbane.
It is a landscape subjected to the familiar pattern of colonisation: dispersion of first peoples; surveying and apportioning of title for land holdings closely followed by substantial land clearing for timber and agriculture. It is the combination of these practices over an extended period of time that has led to severe land degradation of the landscape, especially impacting on creeks, riparian zones and surrounding escarpments.
Over this short eleven-year period the valley has experienced two, 100-year flood events within a three-year period. Combined, these floods have resulted in loss of life and dwellings as well as having had a devastating and permanent effect on the creek topography, cultivated farmland and ecosystems of surrounding bushland and national parks.
The work carried out to restore the landscape after the 2011 flood was destroyed by the subsequent flood in 2013. Following this flood much additional repair and rehabilitation work was undertaken. What was strongly evident and frankly amazing from this work was the ability and capacity of the earth to rejuvenate and re-establish the bio-diversity of an area.
Two recent fires, of intensity and behaviour not previously experienced, have been immensely destructive—almost all has burned—the creek, flora and fauna decimated, with all restoration work up to date destroyed. But while this loss, not just in this small valley but repeated across the country, is almost unbearable, the earth through this thin fecund layer—the soil—will continue regardless… regardless of who, what or when.
Michael Phillips, 2019[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_column_text] 

Video Black Soil series[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soLt46fXFCc”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]