Custom Print Project collaboration with Madison Kelly

The ‘Care Ecology Suite’, 2018 is a series of six screenprints printed on Pescia fine art paper and produced in the Print Laboratory at the Dunedin School of Art. The suite consists of six drawings by Madison reproduced as screenprints using a double exposure on each. Each print is individually titled as: Takahē, Tui, Hoiho, Kōtare, Kea, Kererū.

I approached Dunedin School of Art graduate Madison Kelly in late 2017 regarding a custom print collaboration to help raise funds for the Wildlife Hospital. I knew that Madison was passionate about animals and shared my interest in wildlife preservation and environmental concerns. Madison’s art practice increasingly adopts ephemeral outcomes as temporary wall drawings. I saw this collaboration as an opportunity to document Madison’s drawing style while at the same time offering funding support to a worthy cause.

Over the course of the year, Madison visited the wildlife hospital and several rehabilitation sites in the area. In her visits, she examined textures, equipment, and spaces that defined the patients’ time at each location. Resulting drawings present hypothetical spaces of care, formed using the visual cues of blankets, wiring, tubes, containers, and wild habitats. The drawings aim to suggest an ecology of care in both artificial healing spaces and the original habitats patients are eventually returned to. Madison’s constructed ‘habitats’ were then constructed into positives for screenprinting. The limited edition screenprints incorporate the outlines of six different species, double exposed into each of the six prints in the series. Two prints, Takahē, and Kea, include a second colour in an attempt to acknowledge the level of care and healing undertaken by the vet nursing staff at the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital.

All proceeds from the sale of this print/series go to the Wildlife Hospital.

Our thanks to Otago Polytechnic for funding support for materials.

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