Fold I II III, 2020, collagraphs. Varying sizes. Images courtesy of the artist.

Joanna Williams

The Fold series is an extension of the series Emboss: Paper on Paper which I began in 2016. Isolation has provided the perfect platform to go back and revisit ideas and processes that you may have started months or years ago, maybe a series that you weren’t fully able to resolve, which was certainly the case for my Emboss: Paper on Paper series. I reached a certain point where without collaboration and external input, and the need for more time, I decided to leave the work, to place it into the ‘unfinished and unresolved pile’. Now, being in isolation, I have re-envisioned the project through the addition of colour and by using the collagraph printing process, which was recently introduced to me through a workshop I completed.

Fold I, II and III are secondary iterations into my exploration into the dimensionality of paper, specifically the duality between two and three-dimensional possibilities of paper. The series endeavours to trace the sculptural drawings of folded paper which, when run through the press, manifest a tension between two and three dimensions. The simple impression alludes to the different states of being and stimulates the sensory exploration of architectural and linear forms. The shadow gap created by the folded edges creates surface depth which transforms the paper into a memory bank of impressions and traces.

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Joanna Williams is an emerging multi-disciplinary artist based in Sydney, who works as a gallery assistant and studio technician, art teacher, and independent arts facilitator. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, she studied locally having graduated with a Bachelor (Hons) of Visual Arts majoring in Print from Sydney College of the Arts, Arts Administration and Cultural Development Certificate from St George School of Fine Arts, and a Certificate 2 in Screen Printing from Ultimo TAFE. Previous exhibitions include:Pound of Flesh, Gaffa Gallery (2012), Replay, Verge Gallery (2013), Young Artists Initiative, M Contemporary (2015), Tasty Divine, Skyfire Studios (2015), Subjective Suburbia, 107 Projects (2017), as well as her solo show at Folonomo Gallery in 2016. Williams’ practice explores her interest in architectural and city space, permanency and perspective. Consistently throughout her practice is a manifestation of ‘the fold’, a process-based response to the limits that regulate our urban spaces and provoke alternate strategies for addressing the way city spaces are constructed, regulated and negotiated.