Prospero's Island – North East
2016
This large-scale work by Valerie Sparks is one of two by the artist that form her series Prospero’s Island, a symbolic interpretation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. For these works, Sparks used images of the diverse Tasmanian coastline to represent the narrative arc of The Tempest, from vengeance to forgiveness. The first image shows the rugged southwest coastline in the midst of a raging storm while this, the second image, brings viewers to the calmer waters of the northeast coast. In these images, Sparks gently alludes to a connection between the central themes of Shakespeare’s play and Tasmania’s own turbulent history.
This work has been digitally composed, combining multiple images of Tasmania’s coastline with photographs of taxidermied birds from the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery collection. The result is a meticulously created and obviously constructed vista, a symbolic landscape that is consistent with the work Sparks has become widely known for. It highlights her ongoing interest in creating spectacular hybrid landscapes as a way of referencing fantastical colonial interpretations of the antipodes and other exotic places.
This work was commissioned by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery for their 2016 exhibition Tempest with the support of the Australia Council.
With this work, Sparks won the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize in 2016.
(2020)
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.