Illustration of distorted and disturbed faces, with group of figures in the background and skull to the right of the image. The face at the bottom of the image is crossed with string, and it holds paper up to its face. Printed in black ink (Rochat Ex Full Black).
'The Age of Uncertainty' series were the first etchings Ken Currie had made - an ambitious project but one that the artist describes as 'a learning process'. Currie's idea was to create as many plates as he could, in order to see how the process worked and what the medium was capable of. Working with Master Printer Stuart Duffin, Currie produced 30 or 40 plates, from which 27 became the final series of etchings. There is not an over-riding narrative to the series but images are linked thematically and are on the same subjects as the artist's paintings of the time. These subjects include ethnic cleansing and the recent Gulf War, plus events which suggested a post-Cold War triumphalism of the West, including political developments in Eastern Europe and the fall of the Berlin Wall, which occured only three years previously.
During the early 1990s, Currie's art was very much affected by these events. In the 1980s he had produced images which showed the self-educated Scottish working class, but the idealism of these pieces made way for work with a darker edge and biting satire which examined social and political injustices and to some extent mocked the idealism of his early work. Goya's prints were also a significant influence influence on 'The Age of Uncertainty'.
'The Age of Uncertainty' brought some technical challenges for the artist. Currie found the' left to right reversal' from working on the plate to the final printed image difficult, as this felt at odds with his style of the time, which he describes as ‘mannered’. He found it very hard to compensate for this reversal initially. Through making these prints, Currie learned how to use aquatint, a process he later used to great effect in a series of prints made at Glasgow Print Studio in 2005-6. 'The Age of Uncertainty' was exhibited in Glasgow Print Studio's Gallery in May 1992.
