Undertow by Pamela Dodds
Undertow by Pamela Dodds. Exhibition view of the installation ‘Undertow’ at Impact 10, the International Multidisciplinary Printmaking Conference in Santander, Spain, September 2018
The installation:
Undertow by Pamela Dodds
A suite of 10 relief prints, 2016-17
Woodcut, linocut and printed wood grain on Japanese paper
Each print 96 x 24 inches / 244 x 60 cm
Edition of 5
Pamela Dodds, ‘in my practice of relief printmaking, I explore the complexities of the human relationship. I create images where the gesture of the human form, when reflected or counterpointed within an expressive environment, can describe a complex and layered moment.
Undertow / Encuentros en las Corrientes Oceánicas addresses the subject of saving and being saved. Through imagery of paired female figures in the water, I examine inherent imbalances in a rescuer-rescuee relationship – the shifting desires, choices and pressures that might occur during the brief moments of a critical encounter.
The water imagery is printed in layers from the natural wood grain of plywood boards. The figure imagery is carved in separate wood or lino- blocks, and printed into the water / wood grain patterns. The suite forms a narrative sequence.’