An Interview with Debra Welch
Our discovery of Debra Welch’s work was the result of another successful sleuthing session through profiles of graduates of the Royal College of Art Printmaking MA program. Debra shares some insights into the process of collecting, assembling and collage that her two dimensional practice and film-based projects share.
Backstage I, 2019, 4-colour separation screen-print on paper. Printed with Sarah Simmonds, Goose Studio/Portable Print Studio
When did you start printing?
I specialized in printmaking in the second year of my degree at Winchester School of Art. The facilities were very good and we were really encouraged to experiment, I remember some of my first prints being etchings and screen-prints, quite experimental at that point and really enjoyable to make. I loved the inability to control every part of the process and outcome, which still feeds a lot of my work today. I also became very interested in the language of collage, the re-appropriation of imagery or sometimes the very simple act of allowing differing fragments and materials to simply sit next one another. All of this still very much informs my work today even though I now work across a range of mediums. Later I attended the Royal College of Art completing my Masters within the Printmaking Department, by this time I was mainly working across video and film, but still very firmly rooted within the language of print.
Mum and Dad, 2019, 4-colour separation screen-print on paper
Untitled, 2019, PVC fly strip blinds, screws
Where do you typically make your work? Home studio? Shared space?
My studio is situated in Stratford, London. I’ve shared the space with artist and good friend Charlie Franklin, we’ve been there for 5 years now. My time in the studio can be quite split depending on what I’m working on. I’ve printed at printmaking studios such as Sonsoles Print Studio (you can peep our own studio tour at Sonsoles), East London Printmakers and made more recent prints with artist/printmaker Sarah Simmonds of Goose Studio/Portable Print Studio. I’ve been lucky to benefit from good friends opening print workshops since graduating and that’s provided a great space to continue to print as well as providing a friendly community to work within.
Over the last couple of years, I had also been working on a project that was based in my hometown of Portsmouth and found myself filming there for long periods of time, followed by intense periods of editing in my studio in London, there was a continuous change of context and the work very much changed as a result of working in both locations. This project culminated in an exhibition ‘All Things Are Yours’ at Chelsea Space in London in April 2019 and included video, sculpture and screen-prints, curated by Gaia Giacomelli
Installation shot taken from exhibition at Chelsea Space, London 2019, curated by Gaia Giacomelli
Still taken from video work All Things Are Yours, 2019
How do you see your print background informing your more expanded practice?
There’s an element to my practice that relies on there being something that I can’t be totally control of. If I think about the way I work, there is usually some form of system in place, which allows the meeting of materials, images, footage and sound without my direct input, there’s also elements that often relies on duplication or repetition. There’s always a balance to be negotiated between those moments of the accidental and intention and ultimately this is what I am interested in, a tension I suppose. In video works I often collect a huge amount material and then work in the studio editing, works initially seem over-complimented but with continuous editing/revisiting the work tends to strip back to something more subtle, this process is very similar to the way I work with 2D or digital collage work, there is almost always a long period of collecting. In my video work I rarely work to scripts or storyboard, once the subject matter itself has been identified, I use the camera as a tool to observe and most of the work for me happens in the edit itself.
In my last project I spent a large amount of time filming my old school before it’s demolition, this was not only an opportunity to enter the school at it’s most peaceful but it allowed me to stumble on all kinds of everyday still life scenes, collections of objects, furniture, that had been abandoned in the rush of the day, the camera captured those arranged objects in a very simple still way, on this occasion the camera rarely moved. When working in this way my eye is always drawn to fragmented arrangements, collage within the frame. All of this in some way for me feeds directly into and from the way I think about printmaking.
Still taken from video work All Things Are Yours, 2019
Who would you love to collaborate with?
Over the last few years the audio has been become more and more prominent in my video works. I often lay down the audio before making any decisions about the visual element of the work, this totally guides the pace and influences the direction of the piece. In past works I have mostly taken field recordings, which have been used in real-time without much edit at all. I would like to collaborate with other artists who work with sound, I like the idea of being presented with the audio to react or respond to visually.
What are you working on at the moment?
My practice more recently has expanded into more sculptural works and at the moment I am working on ways to bring the individual elements closer together, print, sculpture, video. When hanging the show at Chelsea Space I was very concerned about the show feeling as if it was one piece of work and decisions were made with the curator at the time to aim towards this when thinking about the installation. I’m really enjoying the process of bringing these different materials, found objects and images together.
Installation shot taken from exhibition at Chelsea Space, London 2019, curated by Gaia Giacomelli