Sofía Alrich Veytia

The term "Matrix" originates from the Latin word mātrix, which signifies a womb, original source, or pregnant animal. It is also linked to the word "mother." Alchemists view the Matrix as a mystical symbol, the Hermetic vessel, where the prima materia undergoes transformation. In the realm of printmaking, the matrix serves as the foundation for producing multiple prints. In my exploration of intangible connections in nature, I approached the print matrix as a means to uncover unexpected associations in natural imagery.

Throughout this unit, I pushed my previous material research by testing larger-size prints, organically shaped plates, printing on fabric, testing out video, and digital manipulation of images. Unit 2, apart from being a time of deeper research and reflection was for me a space for experimentation and trying out ideas without necessarily thinking too much about the final piece. There were many tests that never had an end result, and their sole purpose was to either test the material quality of a certain media or support or to test new imagery and reflect on how I could use these exercises in my future practice. Some of these unresolved artworks could not be completed because of technical issues, this in turn led to a lot of trial and error which eventually gave fruit to artwork which I was pleased with. 

On the Gallery and Critical Reflection page, you will find the resolved artworks that are backed up with conceptual research. This area however displays the hands-on testing and material analysis of the past months. 

After using photography as the starting point for my printed works during unit 1 I decided to start unit 2 with a hand-drawn approach, as I wanted to compare what the two processes can achieve in my practice. An aspect of printmaking that sometimes creates boundaries is the rectangular composition of a metal plate and I thought that experimenting with organically shaped plates could dissolve that boundary, but in the final prints, I realized that the rectangular shape of the paper still confined the artwork. Unconventionally shaped plates are something that I will probably come back to at a later time, as the plates themselves became interesting objects, and imposing various plates upon a single sheet of paper creates a distinct dialogue. 

These pieces titled Sagrado Corazon were made in response to the Forces of The Small exhibition in March of this year. These pieces touch on a subject different from my main artistic practice, I decided to make these pieces separate from my main practice as I usually do not work in miniature scale, as I feel it does not convey effectively the concepts I am researching. For this reason, I chose a subject that is more intimate to me, the Sagrado Corazón, or the Sacred Heart. The sacred heart is an important symbol in Mexican culture as it forms part of many household decorations, church altars, and craft designs. Personally, this symbol reminds me of my family, and after being away from them for several months now I wanted to create a piece that served as a token to remember them. 

During March I experimented with screen printing onto fabric and thin paper, the initial aim was to use these fabric pieces as a support to which I could project a video, I created these before I started the video and once I began it I soon realized that the printed textures would be too disruptive for a video piece, but they could potentially be used for experimenting with light. Although these tests didn't further my current conceptual research they did remind me of the importance of the concept of play within art-making, they made me reflect that sometimes to move on and make bodies of work that represent who I am as an artist, I also need to create things just for the sake of getting ideas out, not expecting a specific outcome. 

During unit 1 I had primarily been working with an intaglio technique called dye-transfer etching, this technique consists of passing a printed digital image onto an etching plate with actisol, the plate is then etched. An important aspect of this process is that the transferred digital image needs to leave enough ink on the plate for the image to be correctly etched. While attempting to make larger prints I decided to create a dye-transfer etching triple the size of my previous ones, but with scale comes more challenges. The small dye transfers are made with copies printed from the Camberwell library, and the large dye transfers require the image to be printed somewhere else, as the library only prints up to A3. The ink used in the Digital Print workshop in Camberwell is not the same one as the printers in the library, and unfortunately, the dye transfer was unsuccessful, the plate did not etch deep enough and the image did not show up on the plate. 

After the failed attempt to use large copies from the digital print workshop at Camberwell for dye-transfer etching, I decided to try photocopies from the Chelsea digital print workshop as they use different ink and paper, and thought perhaps that could work... it did not work, those photocopies had the same effect as the large Camberwell ones. After two failed attempts and a lot of time lost, I decided to tile two A3 photocopies from the library which I knew would work. Tiling two A3 photocopies allowed me to create a larger print, but they didn't completely cover the area of the plate, so I decided to fill the rest with aquatint drawing. 

The images above are experiments I did with light, the first three images are frames from the video Axis Mundi projected onto the Bargehouse walls in different angles, the next two are photo positives projected onto screen printed fabric, the next two are yarns placed upon a lit up surface, and the rest are photo positives placed on an overhead projector. In the overhead projector tests I placed drops of water on top of an acetate that protected it and the positives, this generated different textures and light effects that modified the original image.