Double Bind: Artist's Statement

Double Bind | Statement | Influences | Process | Plates | Definitions

"Initially I created the Double Bind series out of desire to expand the traditional boundaries of printmaking with regards to scale, materials and content. The content encompasses the history of printmaking, the messages inherent in the technical process, and the issues of sexuality, culture and identity; the relationship of the whole to its parts."

How the Double Bind Prints are intended to be seen:

The Physical Self:

I created the figures by sitting on the plates and tracing the edge of my form. I was able to complete the form from memory, after I did the initial tracing. The figures in this series were either traced, or I used myself as the model, or I drew from my imagination. While I was drawing the figures I thought about who I was in relation to history, culture, and my role as a teacher, visionary and printmaker.

The Mental Self:

The act of working out the technical components, arranging the printing, deciding on the positions, and such were aspects of my mental self, or my mental processes. I thought about how visual art is defined as oil paintings and how most people do not know anything about printmaking and it’s significance in shaping history, knowledge and communication.

The Real Self:

The action of the image was created by my intuitive self, and my mental self just followed along, made up a story, and the body self did the physical work. The Real Self formulated the message within the work, the meaning of the perspective and the reason for this unusual perspective. Because this real self was trying to tell me and you that we are the watchers of the world and body dramas. We are in the world but we are not of it. We create it.

Put Yourself In It:

So to view this wok you must put yourself in it and go through the process yourself of sitting, contemplating the body, going beyond the body into time and space and then realize that your life, your essence is beyond all of it. You are the creator. This is real power. This is where all real knowledge will lead you.

Created by Gisele Beaupre ©