I have been struggling all week with a composition depicting farmed salmon. I have been making Japanese-style fish prints on rather unnatural looking colored fabrics because I want the fish to look manufactured. I plan cross the fish with heavy black lines representing bars of the cage, and to have the water within and below the cage to look like toxic waste--because it is.
I've experimented with printing the fish on dry and damp fabric, using screen printing ink, acrylic paint and India ink. The ink gives the very best print. I'm using a rubber fish from Dick Blick, so fortunately, I don't have to worry about having a rotting fish in my studio.
I have also been toying with the idea of carving a stamp and printing a fish skeleton over the fish print to give a sort of x-ray effect, but my first attempts at that have fallen short, and I'm running out of time. The SAQA deadline is September 30th, but we are leaving on a trip September 20th, so I have to be finished, and photographed by then...eek.
I also want the water below the cage to look tainted in some way, since farmed salmon are not only bad for the health of the consumer, but devastating to the environment.
I'd better quit writing and get to work!!
