Jo-Ann Chan

Potchefstroom

WRITTEN IN BONE (2013)

Type of book work: Editioned / printed work
Dimensions: 440 x 255 x 25
Media: Digital photography, etchings, graphite rubbings, laser engraving and digital prints

Artist's / designer's statements

This landscape-format bookwork is post-bound. It consists of a combination of digital prints and original artworks. Pages incorporate layering and fold-out mechanisms to help tell the landscape's story.

VISUALISING THE VOICES OF REDAN (2016)

Type of book work: Editioned / printed work
Dimensions: 340 x 254 x approx. 880
Media: Digital photography, etchings and Perspex

Artist's / designer's statements

This is a five-part, landscape-format artist book. Each part consists of a series of a combination of loose etchings and digital prints on Rosaspina contained in a Perspex box.

The current era is one of expansion and interdisciplinarity. The range of creative opportunities is rapidly expanding through digital media, breakthroughs in technology and interaction between various fields. It is this potential for collaboration and interaction that interests me - the collaboration of the digital and with the analogue; of the sciences with the arts; of theory with practice. My current creative practice falls within the context of practice-led research and explores the notion of imbuing a landscape with a personal identity. In light of the current environmental situation, I choose to work with mistreated or forgotten landscapes in the hope of telling their stories. I attempt to apply the principles, theory and workflow of forensic anthropology to these landscapes, repositioning them as victims. "Written in Bone" and "Visualising the voices of Redan" are projects that fall within this conceptual framework.

Each project is a response to my personal interaction with the landscape; and the production of artists books provided an open format through which to tell its story. It facilitated the exploration of creative opportunities provided by laser engraving, photogrammetry and Perspex as medium, amongst others, without having to force the outcome to conform to a standard book format. To a certain extent, the artist book as genre has allowed my creative practice to be self-indulgent in my exploration of technologies and alternative media, without losing coherence.

Artist / Designer / Academic Education 2017 BA (Hons) in Graphic Design North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus Jo-Ann Chan is an illustration and graphic design lecturer for the School of Communication Studies at North-West University. She obtained a BA Honours in Graphic Design (cum laude) from the same institution and is currently enrolled for a Masters Degree in Graphic Design.