OISTRE - accordion book of oyster 'drawings'

 OISTRE - finalist in the 2025 Burnie Print Art Prize 

so pleased with this little accordion book - 14 images presented in pages reminiscent of old fashioned photo albums using 250gsm canson and a single oyster shell in a recessed back page.  Gold leaf back cover with book cloth on the front cover and an original image of an oyster(s) drawing.

OISTRE Artist Statement :

Taking an inanimate object, the artist is interested in capturing the essence underlying the visible, to construct a reality as real as anything.  The ephemeral nature of the process and the unknowns create an experience not just an object.

A mix of intention and chance, Chemigrams, a little known and rarely used process, sits at the intersection of printmaking, drawing and photography.  

The process and approach belongs to printmaking and drawing/painting, the materials belong to photography without a camera.

Using light and time, each image is a unique original and cannot be replicated since no matrix exists. 

This unique, one-of-a-kind artwork references Tasmania's lost oyster reefs using the ocean itself - sea water, found oyster shells and sand.  The mystery is within the process creating images reminiscent of the cosmos, dreams, metaphysical questions.

Oysters filter coastal waters around the world and help protect against flooding yet pollution and dredging have destroyed many of their habitats. And we cannot ignore the increasing acidification of the ocean, the seemingly insurmountable issues of climate change; 

Rather than heavy-handed protest, the artist favours a gentle form of persuasion and aims to seduce through beauty and subtlety in a contemporary era where there’s so much wonder and so much possibility,  

Images are coaxed from emptiness, bringing them into the world rather than snatching them from it.  Coming out of a sort of poetic intuition my hope is that

more complicated feelings and a multiplicity of visual meaning comes through - without a clear lesson.