History is Now and Then

History is Now and Then is a series of research-led prints that interrogate the dominance of Western Modernism as a pedagogical cornerstone in art education. Through this body of work, I aim to transform printed reproductions of canonical artworks, those emblematic of this tradition, into something more open, less fixed, yet still resonant with meaning and significance.

As a printmaker, I’ve been exploring the use of parallel lines and basic geometric forms as tools for image-making. In this series, I apply these elements to pages cut from The Story of Art, a widely circulated art historical reference. My designs draw inspiration from traditional patterns found in Celtic, Australian Aboriginal, Japanese, and other cultural motifs, often seen on objects and textiles.

For this project, I chose block printing as my method, a deliberately forceful technique that asserts itself over the existing image. This process sets up a visual and conceptual dialogue between the original and the intervention, with the block print often assuming a dominant role. In the act of stamping, something new is revealed, or perhaps concealed, emerging only through the print itself and suggesting the possibility of a new, integrated whole.