Estimated Ink Levels / Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award 2015

 

Documenting every last drop of the yellow, cyan and magenta cartridges of our HP 5200 home printer, this work documents in the form of a book, the printer’s struggle to produce an unlimited stream of rainbow-coloured gradients, pushing the printer to its limits. The often frustrating results of low ink levels and printer malfunctions are transformed into a spectacle as you turn the pages. At first there is little change, but as the mass of prints builds the printer slowly fails to replicate exact copies of the digital image. The familiar, appealing gradient of a desktop background begins to take on expressive qualities as it is slowly reduced to streaks and lines. The unpredictable nature of this process is reminiscent of the narrative of a story; you can’t help but read the next page.