Title: Hopping Down, Grubbing Up
Media: Woodcut and Carborundum Monoprint CollageDimensions: w120cm x h150cm approximately
Museum Object: The Scuppet
As a starting point for my work, I selected the museum’s simple and functional wooden scuppet, used to shovel hot kiln-dried hops from the floor to a cooling area. In the 1800s Kent was the heartland of the hop industry. Every summer the picker families would “hop down” from London for the season. Gradually, due to changes in taste, climate, costs and competition, the hop industry declined and the scuppet has become almost obsolete. The apple orchards which replaced the hop gardens are now being “grubbed up” for similar reasons and are giving way to vineyards, solar farms, nature reserves and housing.
“Hopping Down, Grubbing Up” layers abstracted images of the scuppet with those of an apple leaf (which coincidentally has a similar shape to a hop kiln).
The printed image of the leaf has been made using a matrix of wood, burnt to remove the softer areas in order to raise the grain. Ink has been rolled over it and paper has been hand-burnished against the surface.
The printed intaglio image of the scuppet has been made using ground carborundum, an abrasive and hard substance used in industrial processes. When inked and printed through a press, the carborundum embosses damp paper and leaves behind its image.
Some of the prints are what is known as “ghost” prints, when a lightly toned print results from taking a second print from a plate without replenishing the ink. By printing dark images on opaque paper collaged with prints of varying tone on translucent paper, the images come and go, giving way to each other.
Sarah Cliff 