2008.719.4

Red CocoonHabitat

Ainsley, Sam (Artist)‎, Glasgow Print Studio (Publisher)‎, Mathieson, Norman, 1966 (b.) (Collaborating Master Printmaker)‎

Illustration of section of intertwined red fabric against a deep blue background, printed in red, blue and black ink. The artist notes about this work: "I was invited to be part of the portfolio of prints 'Habitat' (1999) at GPS and immediately thought of the Gaston Bachelard book 'The Poetics of Space' where he talked about spaces and their effects upon human beings. The cocoon seemed to me the most enclosing and safe metaphor for our sense of 'home' with all that implies.The image comes from a Jan Van Eyck painting of a turban (which also encloses the head) and was transformed into a cocoon by simply joining the two halves. It was important to me that it was the warmest of colours; red, and that the background was the complementary opposite, blue - the night sky, water, coolness, calm. I later made a painting (and print) entitled 'Ghost Cocoon' where I added two outlines of the original cocoon images to suggest the elusiveness of safety and the role played by memory when it comes to ideas of 'Home'" (Information provided by Sam Ainsley by email, January 2020).

Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Glasgow, Lanarkshire

1999 - 1999

Screenprint