We are a Brooklyn-based, artist run, fine art publishing studio that works with invited artists on experimental approaches to printmaking. Each work from our small numbered editions is unique and shows evidence of the artist's hand. We aim to make original art accessible to more people.
Element's prints are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Weatherspoon Art Museum.
The Practice Scales, 2007
Two color silkscreen with graphite ink on antique ledger pages (1889)
with multiple hand additions in pencil, pen, and ink
12 x 15 inches
Edition of 20 signed and numbered on verso
Each work is unique
Includes DVD with excerpt from 'Experiments in Moving Drawings II',
an animation by the artist
$600
Price includes packing and shipping within the United States.
We insure all shipments. In the event of loss or damage, the purchase price will be refunded to the customer's credit card.
Louise Despont's print 'The Practice Scales' is a continuation of her custom of drawing in antique ledgers and account books. The forms and
patterns in her library of drawings are inspired by the individual history and character of each book. For her print the artist translated one of these border drawings into a silk-screen design that was printed in two tones of graphite ink on the original antique pages of a ledger that dates from 1889. Despont used ink, pen, and pencil to hand render her architectural lines, circles, and scales on the prints making each one unique.
The print is accompanied by a DVD containing an excerpt from an animation by the artist entitled 'Experiments in Moving Drawings II'. The animation was made using photocopy repetitions and cutouts from the ledger book drawings and filmed in stop motion.
"The possibility of recording time in pages — through a book of drawings is what led me to work in stop motion animation. Both the drawings and the films are about the passage of time and the possibility of the imperfect becoming whole through series. Hand drawing the variations on each print is very akin to the process of animating. With each print the drawing shifts and moves — and begins to come to life as a moving image."
Louise Despont received her BA in film and semiotics at Brown University in 2006. In 2005 she was awarded a grant from the Princess Grace Foundation. Her films have screened in numerous film festivals including The Ann Arbor Film Festival, The Black Maria, CON CAN, Athens International Film and Video Festival, and the Palm Beach Festival. Her work is currently featured in the Drawing Center's Viewing Program.
