These works are connected through a sense of emergence, perhaps from concealment or constraints. In print, I work primarily through a subtractive dark-field technique. Ink is gradually removed and reworked until forms begin to surface from within the ink. Figures appear fragmented, shifting or only partly visible, creating works that feel discovered rather than fully resolved. This extends beyond the image itself through the use of shaped photolitho plates and fragmented forms that resist fixed boundaries.

The ‘Moretta Muta’* appears in some pieces as a recurring motif associated with social control; connecting to ideas surrounding the abject feminine and the tension between visibility and voicelessness. In my work it is treated not as a historical object, but a site of resistance, a shifting symbolic form that is eroded, absorbed, dissolved into the surface.

*The Moretta Muta was a round, black 17th-18th century Venetian mask worn exclusively by women to indicate pious modesty or alluring mystery. Instead of employing ribbon ties to secure the mask, it was held in place by a button gripped between the teeth, rendering the wearer completely silent.