Blair Waterfield
Born in Sydney, Blair Waterfield was invited to study at the National Art School in a 2001 scholarship initiative. It was here that he realized his passion for the printmaking medium. In 2006, he moved to Tasmania to study at the University of Tasmania’s School of Art and has since established himself as one of Tasmania’s emerging artists. Blair completed his Batchelor of Fine Art in 2008 and Masters in Printmaking 2010 at The Tasmanian School of Creative Arts and has had many solo and group exhibitions.
Objective Rationale
‘Objective Rationale’ is a series of colour etchings that represent the trace of individual lives. The objects depicted in the series come from family heirlooms that have been passed down through generations; each generation adding to the history and life of the object. The theme of this body of work is centralised around existing family portraiture and is represented through the form of an object once belonging to an individual. The textured and layered grounds of the prints allude to an excavation into history; a type of archaeological investigation tracing individual lives. In some cases the entire object has been removed, whereas in others, the ‘object’ has camouflaged itself into the layered ground of the print, generating a fossilised impression within the two dimensional plane.
The objects used in this series include, a timber tobacco container and a silver biscuit barrel inscribed with the Hardingham Coat of Arms. ‘Objective Rationale’ is based on a growing interest into my ancestral history in an attempt to better understand the present by looking to the past. – Blair Waterfield
