Do the Gocco-A-Go-Go!

It’s not a dance, but a little Japanese self silk-screening machine that I demonstrated for my students yesterday (I did a lil’ dance for them while I exposed the screens…how lewd!). I love taking the screens that the Gocco exposes, and hand-pull prints. A lot of accidental fun in ones’ work can happen with a silk screen.  I was having so much fun that I ended up creating two screens rather than just the one that I had originally planned on demonstrating.

The first was created from a drawing that I have had in my head for some time now, and the other was created from a portrait of my daughter that I took some months ago using my friend J.P.’s Canon 35mm digital SLR.

I wanted to show my students that these little silk screens have a tight enough mesh to handle subtle photography. As it turns out one of the prints appears to have a veil going across her face. A total mistake, but it reminded me of an exhibit of late 19th- early 20th century paranormal photography that I saw at the Met about a year ago.

The Gocco was intended for crafts time, and has its limitations. I love it because of the randomness of its’ output. It reminds me of a couple of quotes-

“Complete control can be the death of a work…”  - Andy Goldsworthy

“Ken and Barbie will never replace voodoo.”   - Phil Hayes