Soft Impressions Publication

This book was produced to accompany Soft Impressions, a cross-generational group exhibition at DCA, bringing together the work of Helen Cammock, Ingrid Pollard and Camara Taylor.

This striking publication brings together a constellation of voices alongside full colour images of the exhibition and a preface by curator Tiffany Boyle.

The design is inspired by the Soft Impressions exhibition at DCA, with care taken to match the colour palette directly to works by each artist.

The three images on the front cover pay homage to artworks by Pollard, Cammock and Taylor. The image on left of four wavy lines, references a series of works by Taylor titled ‘Untitled (re/decomposition)’ which features reproductions of works by renowned African American artist Robert S Laurenson submerged in a mixture of water, whiskey and rum.

The upper right image of an orange circle references a new commission by Cammock titled ‘Courage’. This textile piece explores elements of Dundee’s landscape and local history, and the circle represents the sun. Dundee is known as the sunniest city in Dundee, and Cammock was particularly struck by this. The bright orange was chosen to mirror Dundee Marmalade, for which the city is famous.

The final image, bottom right, references a series of works by Pollard titled ‘Regarding the Frame’, which explore geology and mining in a particular area of Northumberland and related songs. For example, Graeme Miles’ famous song ‘Sea Coal’ which discusses people who collect coal that washes up on shores.

The title of the book is drawn from printmaking terminology, where a work lifted from the printing plate is called an impression; the same term can be used to denote the application of pressure in creating prints.

The book featured newly commissioned text, by art historian and writer Professor Susannah Thompson exploring the seminal Caribbean writer Sam Selvon’s time in Dundee and his published works to provide a timeline to key moments and happenings referenced in the works of Pollard, Cammock and Taylor.

This is followed by an in-conversation between the three artists; speaking to printmaking methods, research processes in both formal archives and the public domain, and cross-generational conversations.

The exhibition at DCA focused on the artists’ shared engagement with printmaking. Their works in print were contextualised alongside installation, moving image, textiles and a mural. A common thread in each artist’s work is an exploration of identity and rethinking historical narratives or figures through poetic actions.