2022, graphite frottage and emboss on BFK Rives

25 cm x 25 cm

Photo: Carl Warner

The work replicates in print, the warp and weft of fabric, used metaphorically to describe underlying foundational structures, as well as the dichotomies that exist in printmaking and everyday life. These binaries operate in the pressure required in the act of ironing, of making a rubbing through topographical transfer, and of sewing, all of which create a flattened plane of homogenised space. The work’s central idea of time is explored in the processes employed: frottage is immediate, appearing like an apparition, while the sewing machine emboss, on the other hand, is mechanised, uniform, and removes subjective touch. Through repetition, the split between fast and slow that arises between these processes accounts for the desynchronisation of labour and time in contemporary life.

Ebony Wilmott is a Brisbane based emerging artist whose work uses the formal language of abstraction to investigate distinctions between the hand-made and the manufactured object. With a focus on the act of making according to pre-determined rules, she uses found materials both industrial and domestic, to create work. Wilmott’s process is repetitive and systematic, chance and form play a key role in her exploration of how small changes can generate variable work.