Artist statement: Traffic police circle, exchanging hard stares with the car park outlaws lifting bonnets and revving engines. Devotees of car culture, known affectionately as rev-heads are a conspicuous presence in rural and remote Australia where the means is often the message. Once, street racing among the freshly licensed was all the rage but over time the disciples of smoke and spin were displaced by civil society. These days Friday night rituals are performed on remote highways where the most accomplished claim their 15 seconds of social media fame. Travellers who come to pay homage to the colour and light of central Australia must wonder at the rev-head manifestos that frame access roads to national parks and ancient sacred sites.
Also known as Giclee prints or bubble-jet prints, pigment ink-jet prints are generated by computer printers from digital or scanned files using dye-based or pigment-based inks. A series of nozzles spray tiny droplets of ink onto the paper surface in a precise pattern that corresponds to the digital image file. In dye-based prints the ink soaks into the paper, whereas in pigment-based prints the ink rests and dries on top of the paper surface.
Whilst the term is broad, pigment ink-jet prints have come to be associated with prints produced on fine art papers. They are the most versatile and archival method of printing available to photographers today. A wide variety of material on which an image can be printed with such inks are available, including various textures and finishes such as matte photo paper, watercolour paper, cotton canvas or pre-coated canvas.
