Relief Printmaking

Panopeus is a printmaking series that seeks to understand the composition of the body.

Each piece consists of a square grid of hand-carved relief woodblocks. Each square block within the grid is fully rearrangeable, rotatable, and removable from the composition. The blocks depict body parts like hands, feet, heads, arms, and chests. Accompanying text identifies these body parts.

For Panopeus, the message is the medium. The process of creating each print involves multiple layers of colored ink. Between printing each layer, I rearrange and re-configure the blocks/body parts to create a new body, a new form, that is overlayed on top of the previous layer. Many layers have circular “holes” to further obscure the content of the block.

This printmaking process informs the thesis of Panopeus, that our understanding of what constitutes a “body” is a construct. Is an arm a body? Is a head a body? Where does the body end and the person begin? The process of printing the stylized, geometric depictions of body parts obscures these parts, creating new “queer” bodies that exist outside our rigid categories.

Panopeus II incorporates new elements as a response to widespread discourse surrounding pronouns. Circular “pronoun” blocks are incorporated among the body parts, but the pronouns themselves are also obscured mis-matched combinations of common identifiers.

The title, Panopeus, refers to the site in Greek mythology where Prometheus created man. In my panopeus, I create new people whose bodies defy form and understanding.