2013
Installation: 290 x 470 cm / 114 1/5 x 185 in. (Each print 70 x 100 cm)
9 Lithographs on 250gsm Velim Arches handmade paper
Edition of 30
Hand signed and numbered on the front
Published by Edition Copenhagen, Denmark
In 2013 the opportunity came to do a residency at the prestigious Edition Copenhagen print workshop.
What makes this brilliant establishment unique is that the artists are presented with a smooth, 'graveyard' size stone slab to draw directly onto with black wax crayons. These ancient slabs were quarried from mines outside of Munich some 135 million years ago and such is the porosity and sensitivity of the stones they pick up the finest marks and finite detail even smudges and finger prints get recorded on the surface. Once the drawing is complete a series of copies are lifted directly from the surface of the stone in a print run directly onto paper - mistakes and all.
We blindfolded one another and set to work drawing portraits of each other using different thickness of crayon.
Scribbling on the stone is very addictive, there is a deep pleasure involved, often the fluidity of the drawing causes the crayon marks to veer off the paper.
After completing the head portraits it seemed only natural to continue the rest of the body on other pieces of paper.
The neck and torso were drawn on another piece of paper whilst still blindfolded, each section of leg drawn on four more sheets of paper, the ankles and feet drawn on two others and the arms and hands drawn on separate bits too, finally all the stages were put together to make one large gloriously disproportionate blind portrait.
Although many other artists have practiced this process over the years, the technicians at the studio remarked that none had ever ventured off the page before. (Sue Webster)
Watch 'Tim Noble and Sue Webster - In Search of Imperfection', a film shot during the residency with Edition Copenhagen here.