‘Looking in Three Dimensions’ etchings by Anne Moorhouse

I created these portraits of my father, brother and grandfather to be seen as an ensemble; originally encased in a wooden frame, the viewer would be able to look at the three coloured etching plates as superimposed images. The faces of the three subjects look out at us as a unit.

Rather than creating prints from the etching plates, I elected to keep the plate itself as a finished image. I sought to challenge the idea that an etching plate is a mere tool in the artist’s creative process. I wanted to suggest that an etching plate has qualities of considerable interest in its own right. The work offers the viewer a new form of engagement with this medium. By inking each plate in a different colour, and superimposing them on top of the other, I was able to evoke a far more dynamic connection between the subjects. A theme of the work is family relationships. I was exploring how portraiture is not simply an interaction between the viewer and one subject, but can involve a far richer, more complex dialogue between us and a number of individuals.

Displayed in a wooden case, the viewer would be able to walk around the work in much the same way that we look at sculpture. Having multiple viewpoints and encouraging the viewer to explore the work from a number of angles, the work sits at an intersection between two-dimensional etching and the three-dimensionality of sculpture. By superimposing the plates, the viewer is unable to look at each subject in isolation. Identity becomes something collective; human meaning is shared and becomes dependent on their relationships with one another.