The 'Erewyrehve' series is a collaborative project between myself and the artist, writer and musician Andy Abbott. I produced 8 reduction linocut prints, all different, based on a digital collage that Andy had created.
'I was developing some imagery to be used as artwork for an album of instrumental compositions to be released under my 'Andrew DR Abbott' and/or 'ADRA' monikers. The album is themed around a postcapitalist utopia called 'Erewyrehve', a concept I started developing as part of a residency in Istanbul in 2013. I had put some visual ideas together using collages of old postcards of Bradford and photographs of rocks on Ilkley Moor and approached Clare to see if she would use these as a starting point for a lino print. I have been a long-time follower of Clare's work and am especially taken with the prints she has been creating over the last few years. I thought her everyday-otherworldiness aesthetic would be a great fit with the music. Her treatment and interpretation of the collage has lifted it to another dimension and I hope will help the listener in immersing themselves in the alternate reality it proposes.'
Andy Abbott www.andyabbott.co.uk
This collaboration process was transformative for me, allowing access to another way of composing images before sending them through my reduction linocut process. The imagery is very evocative of the landscapes of my childhood; trips to run-down West Yorkshire towns and weekend walks along the moors. The dreamscape format that brings together these different visual and conceptual elements has shown me a way to incorporate all the personal documents and imagery that I would like to investigate in the future.
