This work was inspired by the illusion theory of self as stated by David Hume. This theory is that the concept of self is an illusion and that we are nothing more than an ever changing collection of experiences which leads to us thinking we exist. This idea is intertwined with time which also became an integral part of this project. I wanted to use time to document the making of a print and the making of a print to document the creation and destruction of itself.

After I had settled on creating a time based work I thought of the artist Nica Harrison who also makes time based printed work. She specializes in screenprinted animations as well as risograph and digital work. The texture of her work is what inspired me the most for this project. Her animations are not always perfectly printed and aligned which creates a hand printed feeling. I wanted to emulate this feeling with my work.

Though many of the animated prints I found were made with screenprint, I decided to make mine with relief print instead. Before I began printing I created a digital version of what I wanted the final block to look like, and several extra sets of eyes.

I started with a 10x10 inch block of gomuban which I printed immediately. After I had printed the intact block I transferred my image to the block with Citrasolv. I then carved the block for 8 minutes 33 seconds and printed it again. This process was repeated 29 times to create the first part of the animation.

Next, on a separate piece of gomuban I transferred and carved the 20 extra sets of eyes. I removed the original eyes from the block so I could fit the new eyes into place. I completed the second part of animation by making a print with each set of eyes. Finally, I started the last phase of the animation documenting the destruction of my print. I once again carved at intervals of 8 minutes 33 seconds, but this time I carved randomly into the image to destroy it. This part was extremely satisfying, but also made my wrists hurt.

Of course the print did not come out exactly as I intended; they never do. The original Citrasolv transfer started to fade after the fist five prints were made. I tried to reapply it, but I couldn’t get it to line up exactly. For the next few prints I worked on carving in guidelines for myself to follow before the transfer disappeared completely. From there I improvised. Towards the end of my carving I realized that I would be able to carve out the image entirely. To complete the destruction of the image I began taking ghost prints which are prints where the ink is not renewed in between. As a result the last eight prints get lighter and lighter and eventually fade to white. The result is close enough to my original idea that I am satisfied.