Iteration can be described as the constant repetition of a single process, in order to generate new but subtly different results.  Through continuous iteration and experimentation, Margaret Manchee uncovers new media, materials and insights as well as developing new techniques along the way – and these new discoveries then lead to further play.  This creative process forms a continual cycle which is the recurring theme and motif in her work.

Iteration presents two series of Manchee’s recent work: etchings using Spirograph; and mixed-media paintings and collages.

A Spirograph novice, Manchee is captivated by the “skips & slips” created using Spirograph wheels and etching needles to draw on copper plates.  These happy accidents may annoy Spirograph purists, but there is perfection in their imperfection.  Manchee loosens up and abandons trying to get things “right”.  In hindsight, this series of prints has captured the intensity and energy of the marks made on the plate, reflecting her state of mind and emotions during the recent months of lock-down in Melbourne.

This series of mixed-media paintings and collages presents an extension of Manchee’s printmaking practice. It started as an experiment to use the printmaking technique of “Chine Colle” with Japanese Kozo rice paper on a non-paper surface.  Through the use of layers, she explores the interconnection between people’s lives and events in the world. As Michigan-based artist Nathaniel Whitcomb declares, “collage more closely mirrors reality than any other art form. To be alive is to construct, to selectively choose from an infinitum of objects and ideas, internalise, then reassemble into a new whole, a life. Living is collage”. [1]

[1] Nathaniel Whitcomb quoted in “The Age of Collage. Contemporary Collage in Modern Art” edited by Dennis Busch, Hendrik Hellige and Robert Klanten published by Gestalten Berlin 2013.