Martin Boyce produced two new limited edition prints and a publication, released to coincide with the Scotland and Venice 2009 exhibition, No Reflections, as part of the 53rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. This new work can currently be viewed in DCA’s information space and in the Print Space above the Shop alongside Boyce’s earlier suite of prints from 2004.

Continuing Boyce's interest in the ‘collapse of nature and architecture’ and interior and exterior forms, these new prints make reference to the empty wooden interior of the artist's bird box sculpture in the vacated Italian Palazzo; the holes in which simultaneously suggest the form of a head or mask. During the development of this project Boyce drew from a short text he had written with an abandoned zoo in mind: ‘warm dry stone and palm leaves, no elephants, no giraffes, no penguins, no brilliantly coloured birds…’. This language of an abandoned garden is continued with the text 'No Brilliantly Coloured Birds' that tumbles out across the image. The form of the text stems from a central structural motif that forms a core of much of Boyce’s work.

Martin Boyce also developed an earlier series of three screen prints in the DCA Print Studio. The works relate to his 2004 exhibition Brushing Against Strange Weeds at the Modern Institute, Glasgow and previous works shown at Tramway, Glasgow. We Are Resistant, We Dry Out in the Sun references his installation at Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich and is based on two interlocking swimming pool parasols, which have faded in the sun.

The other two prints, Brushing Against Strange Weeds, reference the angles and shapes in the four concrete trees created by Joël and Jan Martel for the 1925 ‘Exposition des Arts Décoratifs’ in Paris. Flattened and translated into strong urban colours reminiscent of industrial signage, in the artist’s words these forms represent "a perfect collapse of architecture and nature”, a theme that continues throughout the work for his exhibition No Reflections.

For further information on the DCA Editions series or to enquire about buying an edition please contact Sandra De Rycker (sandra.derycker@dca.org.uk or 01382 909 255).

Print Space opening times
Monday – Saturday: 10.30am - 5.30pm
Sunday: Noon – 5.30pm