Explosions - Jon Fischer Visual Artist

Portfolio > Explosions

2020-21

EXPLOSIONS

Imprints from 15 years of screen printing are organized, indexed, and remixed into screen printed paintings.

Images are layered by the hundreds to form the surfaces

hand bound book of test prints w/ secret CD-r

Explosion no. 1

A pandemic project.

closing of an old collection to clear the way for a new one.

Visions of a singularity that may be converging everything together–or erupting it apart.

The surfaces of these canvases were created entirely by layering screen prints from ressurected work. This process is made more tangible because most screen prints leave behind a film (“the film positive”), that was required to make it.

Surprisingly personal paintings made during a period of great personal loss using artifacts from the past.

(Also, a good excuse to clear out some old screens.)

1. Origins

Images from a wide variety of projects were collected over the years

Graphite rubbing from Grace Cathedral (San Francisco)

Rubbing of a redwood stump (Santa Cruz County)

where Mom was born: video clip from palms in old Akko (Isr)

1981 family Edition of Joy of Cooking open to its most used page

Security Pattern from a $2.41 royalty check

II. Film Positives

Black & white film positives are generated to mask light during screen exposure.

III. Indexes and Studies

Test prints are organized in swatch books and small studies

Album Art for an LP release by Giacomo Fiore & Danny Clay

Artist Book + CDr

Zine-style bound assemblages of hand printed material on various papers and substrates.

Screen prints on quilted canvas

Part manifesto, part catalog.

Oversized comment cards for an art conference.

Set of unique paper & tissue scrolls.

Screen prints on canvas, wood stretcher device w/ custom hardware

Screen print, thread, wood, custom linen-backed cedar frame

Screen print on pine

Screen print, thread, wood, custom linen-backed cedar frame

Screen print, thread, wood, custom linen-backed cedar frame

IV. Final Works

All of the marks on these pieces are made by freestyle screen printing: iteratively layering hundreds of hand-pulled prints through mesh screens directly on to the canvas. What are the aesthetic possibilities of a mechanical process that works like a copying machine?