Creating Silence

An exhibition of screen prints and photopolymer etchings by Sarah Roach.

“I’ve been thinking about what brings together the two strands of work that make up this exhibition, that I have been working on for the last year (or so). What links my stones and my grasses – my photopolymers and my screen prints? Was it my excitement about the lines and shapes created by these two seemingly disparate forms from nature, was it my obsession with trying to create a sense of silence and stillness in my work, or was it just a personal exploration of two printing methods? Really it was all three, with a large chunk of time chucked in for good measure.

Silence cannot exist without time. The circles, structure and lines created here are shaped by time. Time shapes everything.

The grass grows, spreads it seed, fades and disappears back to the earth with the seasons. The stones and their lines and veins are like echoes of what once was – the greater story of their creation. Their seemingly fragile mineral lines, worn gradually by the weather and the ebb and flow of the tides eventually returning back to the earth. All to begin again. The photograph and the print create a pause in these processes exposing shapes and lines that exist in space and time only for a fleeting moment.

The two printing processes allow me to explore silence, space and time through both darkness and light. The screen prints through light, space and minimal lines, the photopolymers through tangible darkness and textures. Both (I hope) creating a sense of silence and stillness for the viewer.”