The Ivory Coast 1958

Ynez Johnston made this print called 'The Ivory Coast' using etching and engraving in 1958. This is a layered world, built from floating, fractured vignettes. It's like she's digging through the archaeology of her mind, pulling up images, collaging them together to create something dreamlike. There are houses, faces, boats, figures… You sense she’s creating her own language with shapes and forms. I like the fact that the scene is slightly out of reach. I wonder what she was looking at when she made this. Maybe other etchings by artists like Stanley William Hayter, or even pre-Columbian art, which she was known to be interested in. You get the sense that she was someone who looked widely and deeply. In a way, all artists are magpies, borrowing, stealing, and transforming ideas. It's all part of an ongoing conversation. Johnston is bringing her own voice to the conversation, creating a space for us to get lost in.