I wish I knew, 2006
Blind embossed etching. 56 x 76cm, fully archival standard 300grm paper. Produced for Cove Park by Dundee Contemporary Arts Print Studio. 

Louise Hopkins is based in Glasgow. Following a research residency at Cove Park in 2017, the artist was invited to develop new work to be produced and presented on site in 2020/21. This Cove Park Commission will enable Louise to continue her investigation in to the relationship between abstract geometric painting and landscape. She will create new work responding to the unique context provided by Cove Park, its rural site and the community of artists it brings together through its international residency programme.

The artist is immersed in a poetic exploration of process and the working methods that she employs translate readily from painting into print. In her paintings she often layers onto a pre-formulated ground, trace by trace, interweaving and evolving a surface material into something entirely new, while retaining the resonance of what lies beneath. These concerns are the foundation for her 2006 print for Cove Park, although Hopkins’ print doesn’t use the application of any ink; instead she employed an embossing process that creates a delicate and shifting translation of the score for the Nina Simone song I Wish I Knew How It Feels to be Free.  The printing plate has been developed from a lengthy process applied to an acetate photocopy of the music, with Hopkins almost completely erasing the reproduction, then meticulously re-working areas of the score so that it emerges from the page again like a handmade version.

Edition price: £500 (unframed)
This work was commissioned for and included within the Cove Park Portfolio, 2006. Information on this project, its themes, and the artists involved in available here.