Writing
“Looking for Clues”, Lower Manhattan, by Susan Mareneck, See Through Books Press, through a grant from the Lower East Side Printshop; Edition of 20.
PACKAGED VIEWS is a series of engravings depicting situations of Lower Manhattan light and space in 1990. The images juxtapose historical and contemporary urban practices. The intensity of the mixed-use location is captured in eight views. The prints are 6 x 8 inch copper engravings in black on 10 x 13 inch white Rives BFK paper.
Each title page is a unique silk-screened monotype on which Futura and Bodoni typefaces mix to reiterate the interaction of old and new.
The flaps of a hand silk-screened envelope are cut into silhouettes of actual buildings from the neighborhood which appear in the prints. These “buildings” open up to reveal the views and a narrative about the education of the artist by the place. The envelope is screen-printed in a pattern reproducing the eight engravings.
The whole presentation consists of layers of dense imagery evocative of the rich, varied texture of the actual Lower Manhattan environment.
