Conceal and Reveal

Unlock My Heart 2025 - handmade paper collage

It seems like there are more and more secrets (and lies) coming to light. Everyday another terrible tragedy or historical crime is revealed. It’s hard to bear witness and be vigilant with what we see, hear and read.

I was thinking about this during the week as I made some small collage postcards. I decided to dip them into paper pulp fibre, to conceal the sharpness of the lines underneath. When wet, the fibre looked like little white puffs of cloud partially obscuring the full images. When dry however, the fibres melded together and the entire base image was seemingly lost.

I had to excavate the postcard to reveal parts of the image underneath, like a treasure hunt for the finest features which could stand out. It’s the sort of thing I’ve done before with a series of collaged travel postcards, where I glued other images over the main picture.

These felt different however. They felt more like an experiment in obscurity, a mist, almost a ‘whiteout’ where you can barely make out the shapes of figures looming up close. When scraped back, the mystery is revealed, the shapes of objects appear although their edges are a bit blurred.

My postcards reminded me of the gas lighting we used to have in our old farm cottage. At night the edges of the room were cast in darkness, only a small halo of light was available to see by. Yet when the electricity was finally connected, all those blurring edges were lit up, there was no place to hide dust and cobwebs anymore.

Later this week I tried out my conceal/reveal technique on a A3 sized paper artwork that had been sitting on my desk for weeks. I wasn’t happy about the way it looked, all sharp edges and cut out shapes. When it had paper pulp poured over it, the edges melded together, the outlines were softened, the image blended together seamlessly.

I know this could be considered a failure of initial composition. I’m aware of the pitfalls of this technique. Yet what this does is push the salient areas forward, to make them stand out against the ‘busy-ness’ of the other areas.

Making art has a way of revealing larger truths. I’m taking note of the way these processes of conceal and reveal are affecting my thinking, of how some truths can’t be turned away from. It had me thinking about my increasing reluctance to believe what I was seeing and reading on the news and social media, considering the bias of silence on political, humanitarian and global issues.

With AI increasingly blurring the edges of reality, diligence and vigilance are called for to be aware of the processes of concealment. We may be heartbroken by what is revealed. We may also be set free.

Tender Tendrils 2025 - argyrotype print, collage, handmade kozo paper