Whenever I receive an email from an artist who lives in the antipodes my heart skips a beat. This was the case with Alana Wilson (New Zeland 1989) who lives in Sydney, Australia. Her first email requesting information to attend the electro-etching residency-workshop was in August 2022. Alana discovered this workshop in Gran Canaria through an artist she knew, Jack Lanagan Dunbar, who had an exhibition in Sydney with the works he produced during his stay in this workshop in 2019.
Alana Wilson is a multidisciplinary artist whose creations include photography, ceramics, sculpture and etching. Through these mediums, she creates a corpus that connects historical, human, natural, and observational threads. She is an artist who has exhibited in different countries. It seems that she likes islands, as she has exhibited in Japan and undertaken residencies in Mallorca and now in Gran Canaria.
To attend this residency Alana applied for a grant from the Ian Potter Cultural Trust, which she was awarded to cover her residency expenses. Before arriving in Gran Canaria, she was in Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and from here she will travel to Morocco for a few days. I believe these trips have served as a great inspiration to this artist, whose practice is active and strong, and who has a bright future ahead of her.
She is a calm and reflective artist, very interested in each one of the processes that she practices, taking detailed notes and photographs. During the three weeks she has been in the workshop, she has worked lines on hard varnish, tonal areas of open bite (electrotint) without rosin. Lines and electrotint on graphite ink as ground and big red resists, both very versatile techniques. She made semi-dry electrolytic etchings, in which she took advantage of the two plates located on the negative and positive poles to etch and galvanize. She worked with passive electrolytic etching, where the zinc plate is etched and the copper plate is galvanized. She also galvanized lines on copper plates by electrolysis.
Alana Wilson will likely continue to practice electro-etching techniques in Australia, as she has acquired enough knowledge to do so.
Pictures from the workshop
Alana Wilson speaks about her experience in the workshop-residency
My time spent learning about and experimenting with electro-etching with Alfonso Crujera was outstanding; a wonderfully immersive experience in a beautiful location and a supportive, familial atmosphere. I was initially intrigued by the non-toxic methods of electro-etching and learning about the various studio processes relating to electrolysis, quite different from classic acid etching. We spent the first two weeks working through various methods such as hard-ground line and open-bite, soft-ground treatments, semi-dry electro-etching (on both cathode and anode, which is incredibly interesting), galvanisation, and passive electro-etching. I spent my third and final week working further on plates and printing. Alfonso has great knowledge across all of these processes and has experimented extensively. He was very open to sharing his research and recommending techniques, often encouraging experimentation.
The technique which I was most intrigued by was semi-dry etching using the negative pole to galvanise. The semi-dry etching process is unpredictable, allowing surface, texture, and material to be worked into the plate. We also worked through how each process could be easily set-up in my own studio, which gave me great confidence to be able to continue working with some of these methods. Alfonso has great regard for studio work health and safety, and shared his common safe material and process practices.
Alfonso has a rich artistic practice not only in printmaking but also drawing, painting, and sculpture. During my time there he was working on many drawings and it was an inspiring atmosphere to work in, he was open to sharing his drawings and discussing his methods and philosophies relating to his artistic practice overall. He mentioned to me his belief that life is greater than art and this was truly reflected during my time there - from discussion about philosophy and cultural history, to sharing recipes, meeting his family and grandchildren, discussing books and mental nourishment, swimming at the local pool, and exploring Gran Canaria. I had an incredibly educational and enriching time at the residency and would recommend it to any artist wishing to explore their printmaking techniques further.
Alana Wilson's electro-etchings
