Fence/Climbing Plant 1978

Curator: Prunella Clough’s "Fence/Climbing Plant" presents as an almost ghostly image. There's a delicacy to it that is immediately striking. Editor: It does, doesn't it? It's like a blueprint, or maybe an ethereal diagram of urban decay. I wonder about the printing process used to make something with such a fragile feel. Curator: Well, the fence and the climbing plant, both are potent symbols here. The fence is restriction, the plant is the persistent, organic force overcoming it. There's a quiet optimism, despite the somber tones. Editor: But consider the repetitive marks, the tiny dots making up the ground, so to speak. It evokes the mechanical reproduction inherent in printmaking, and it flattens out any sense of depth. I see that as an active choice. Curator: A deliberate tension, then, between the organic symbol and the mechanical process! That reading adds a layer of complexity. Editor: Precisely. Seeing the labor, the touch, within the industrial—that’s what fascinates me. Curator: It transforms a simple image into a meditation on resilience, and the subtle battle between nature and the man-made. Editor: Indeed, it's a fascinating convergence of process and potential.