Interdisciplinary Approaches 1

Archaeology and Art

To learn a basic introduction to archaeology, I watched a video by Kwantlen Polytechnic University. I found the focus on “information that's either been forgotten or erased”,

interesting and decided to further explore this. The idea of something being lost/ taken away can be represented within a reductive lino print process. Inspired by the archaeological process of exploring different layers and remains; I printed a base colour, and then cut away sections of lino to preserve these initial sections of colour. In one sense this documents the history and process of creating this piece on paper, as it is no longer visible on the lino block as more details are added/ removed.

Another key point mentioned in this video was, blending “ history and the present”. In archaeology this can be done by documenting findings through maps, photography, writing and drawing. When transferring this process to art, I began by looking at many art writing journals. The publishing dates of these varied and allowed me the opportunity to see how writing styles and content have changed and analyse successful aspects. I was surprised by the style of the older piece that I looked at, it was more engaging and actually seemed more modern as it was informal! I was inspired to focus on the text from one specific piece, an interview. Picking out simple sentences and words that could be arranged to quickly display the content to expect. I chose to display this information as a collage style photograph, so that the end result is smooth and non textured, like a page in a journal.

From learning about these archaeological techniques, I have created two different outcomes in response. I would be interested in further exploring this in the future.

Reduction print. This remains unfinished however, clearly shows the layers being built up as lino is removed from the original block.

Here is an image of my response to an old art journal, creating a modern response to an old work.