Inca began after a journey to Cusco in Peru and an encounter with the monumental stone walls of Sacsayhuamán. Their scale and density are extraordinary, but so is their perceptual instability: the longer one looks, the more light, shadow and irregular geometry seem to alter the surface. The wall appears almost to shift and reorganise itself.

Returning to this experience, a grid was constructed digitally and reduced to a black-and-white bitmap. Positive and negative versions of the same image were then translated into 26 × 26 cm zinc relief plates for letterpress printing.

Through repetition, overlap and changes in density, the fixed structure begins to transform. The work connects two very different systems of making: an ancient knowledge embodied in carved stone and a contemporary image constructed through pixels, bitmap and print. At different distances, the same structure can appear architectural, optical or digital.

2016
Unique prints
Letterpress from zinc relief plates on paper
Plates: 26 × 26 cm
Various dimensions