Fountain, 2023
Fountain from One Three Collective was made by artists Mark Dustin and David McBurney. The work captures processes of mechanical image reproduction, presented as a looped moving image of a waterfall on a split LED light matrix, 100x103x25cm.
About the work: Fountain is a reflected and repeating presentation of image reproduction. The work examines a functional role of print which is to move image information from place to place; from person to person; and from time to time. Considered from this perspective print offers advantage via replication, separation, and distance. Fountain captures a haunting face of this industry-of-distance with the ecological portrait of a continually weeping waterfall.
At the same time, Fountain offers counterpoint; orienting away from the separation of individual artists and instead moving toward print-based collaboration. The result renegotiates a range of discreet and traditional binaries often associated with print – ink and paper; matrix and substrate; artist and printmaker; original and reproduction. By experimentally collecting and presenting these relationships for consideration as ‘a print’, Fountain circuitously visualises 'print production' as a method to reconsider an encounter with the present.
Fountain was a major prize winner in the 2023 Experimental Print Prize, hosted by the Castlemaine Museum of Art.
See the 6 minute mark for discussion of Fountain by judges Beverly Knight and Richard Harding
Judges’ comments: Fountain 2023 operates from a print informed position within the discipline of printmaking. This moving image activates reproductive philosophies of the matrix via the digital file that holds it. This electronic image talks to the reproduced image via the 24 frames needed to make the image move. However, these individual frames look very similar, as if editioned, yet different. This is one of print's inherent qualities. The presentation of the artwork on floor plays with a spatial exploration enabling it to be viewed as if it is a functioning water feature.