The individual plates as above I’ve made as an edition of 8. These are 1/8 each numbered and initialed. I’ll mount up another set without the circular mount, making it a box frame. These two will have the individual plates printed as single sheets to allow many different layouts as below. However my main mission was to get a killer self-contained installation that would be high impact with minimum space requirement but I’ll get to that. The gold ones would not feature by the way.
various layouts are possible with the octagonal frames as shown above. Below is a vertical sheet printed with the three plates and framed up in red as an AP.
This sets the scene for my mini installation Simian Wisdom which keys the Wisdom Trinity to make a very contemporary but lasting political message. As you will see the installation below is the result of much experiment and I think this will be the best option but I’m open to suggestions.
Not sure if I need to publish some sort of Glossary of terms as below.
Ochlocracy: government by the mob; mob rule
Fissiparous: tending to break or split up into parts: divisive. fissiparous tendencies within a political party.
Lusus Naturae; freak of nature. Margaret Atwood utilizes the term to depict the tendency of society to isolate their members whose physical features look different from the rest. The main character is a girl who is rejected, called horrible, and nicknamed a monster because she suffers from porphyria (Atwood 265)
Ned Ludd is the legendary person to whom the Luddites attributed the name of their movement. In 1779, Ludd is supposed to have broken two stocking frames in a fit of rage.
A deipnosophist is skilled at dinner table conversation.
Salaud: before its generic derogatory meaning, it was the Sartrean definition of someone who refuses to take responsibility for their acts, demonstrates bad faith and self-deception, a denial of human freedom, abdication of responsibility towards oneself and others.
Hetrodox can describe someone actively challenging or opposing accepted doctrines.
Accidie or accedie has been variously defined as a state of listlessness or torpor, of not caring or not being concerned with one's position or condition in the world. spiritual sloth; apathy; indifference.
The Pierian Spring of Macedonia was sacred to the Pierides and the Muses. As the metaphorical source of knowledge of art and science.
To make the red-cap monkeys I’ve used a single plate that has only the peak or visor of the cap which I wipe up in red along with the black ink on the face. The different substitutes for MAGA are made up as separate aquatinted plates that jigsaw on to leave the white line join of the actual cap (genius, obviously). I’ve made 12 but only used seven. I had “artist” and “etcher” but as Anne said to me, people would interpret that as etcher’s for Trump and subvert the reading.
This image was first state of the caps and they required two more aquatints to hold the red ink. I also opted to avoid a serif font as this would be just too MAGA.
Following are my many variations. I made two of the tall narrow window frames thinking one each side of the block would work but looked too ecclesiastical and only needs one to set up the “Wisdom” of the Simians. The big horizontal frame is good alone but way to dominant with the smaller octagons.
