World of Wonder exhibition and linocut workshop

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World of Wonder exhibition and linocut workshop

April 26, 2011

Last weekend saw the opening of my new exhibition ‘Nick Morley’s World of Wonder’ at Material in Ludlow. Many thanks to Lucy and Joe for their hospitality and hard work. Ludlow is a lovely place to visit, a charming centre of gastronomy with a castle in rural Shropshire. My exhibition runs until 13th May if you fancy a visit.

The new works I made for the show included the two images of ships you can see here (Ghost I and Ghost II). They are linocuts printed on Japanese paper and measure over 1m tall. Both prints are from the same lino block, the left one is white ink on black paper and the right one is black on white. The image comes from a famous photograph of the explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship, Endurance.

While I was at Material I ran a Royal Wedding Souvenir Book workshop. Each participant designed a bride or groom character which was then carved out of lino and printed onto paper.

For inspiration I found some old magazines featuring the wedding of Charles and Diana from 1981:

The participants worked in teams to print their images, using barens and wooden spoons to press on the back of the paper.

The prints were then hung up to dry.

These are my characters for the book.

I now have to print a cover for each book and then staple them together and send copies to the participants. The books will open in such a way that you can match up different wedding couples depending on how you open it. I will post more images when it is complete.