In late 1936, George Orwell wrote an essay called Shooting an Elephant, about his ‘experience’ in British-occupied Burma. Dismantling an Elephant reflects on Orwell’s critique of colonialism and its pervasive and dominating influence on the colonised, and even the colonisers. In a new body of work, printmaker, Chris Clifton uses print-media and textiles to explore the legacy of colonial-era borders and their impact on our current social and political fabric, and the impact of our current social and political fabric on the boundaries of our ecological world.
Heads of the line 2, reprographic transfer, linen, beeswax and hand embroidered cotton
...bomb, etching, spit bite aquatint, relief print, monoprint
Upper the Khyber (top) - hand-coloured two-plate etching and aquatint; Rescinding of Khyber (bottom), etching and aquatint
Twenty-four percent, collaged prints and found paper
Sixty-four, collaged prints and found paper
Heads of the line, reprographic transfer, linen, beeswax and hand embroidered cotton
Al-Qaim (top) and Afrin Wall (bottom), etching and aquatint
Rock, paper, scissors.... collaged prints
Like an elephant, shakin' his big grey trunk for the hell of it, collaged prints and found paper
Residual, digital print on Awagami Kozo Thin Natura
Dismemberment, digital print on Awagami Kozo Thin Natura
Lingerer, digital print on Awagami Kozo Thin Natura
Kaavan (top) and The curtain falls (bottom), etching, aquatint and mezzotint
Shooting an Elephant Series, etchings
Prime elephant cuts (right). digital print on Ilford Washi Torinoko, torn, hand stitched, brush and ink
