CatharineClarkGallery

Direct gravure etching on twenty-four copper plates printed on sheets of gampi paper, joined and backed with sekishu kozo paper. Printed by Paul Mullowney and Harry Schneider, assisted by Alejandra Arias Sevilla in a numbered edition of 10 plus 3 proofs. Signed and numbered on the recto in pencil.

Co-published by Mullowney Printing, Portland and San Francisco, and Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco.

As part of the ongoing “Imaginary Monuments” series (2007 - present), Sandow Birk has created a fourth gravure in the project: "Proposal for a Monument to the Declaration of Independence (and a Pavilion to Frederick Douglass)." This new image proposes a monument to the text of the Declaration of Independence replete with all the ironies about whose freedom it protects therein (the Pavilion to Frederick Douglass). The composition of the main structure that houses the Declaration’s text is rendered in a neoclassical style reminiscent of the Capitol and other government buildings from the period in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

Suspended from the upper portion of the cracked and worn neoclassical architecture is a heavy bar and chain holding a sign inscribed with a passage written by Thomas Jefferson decrying slavery. This text was omitted from the final draft of the Declaration of Independence. And in fact here, it remains outside of the main monument, engraved on a plaque that inauspiciously hangs overhead, casting a shadow of shackles and chains—accoutrements of the slave trade—onto the Declaration’s text.
Birk’s gravure further reminds us of the era’s paradoxical approach to issues of freedom and slavery in a second structure—the so-called pavilion—rendered across from the neoclassical monument. Enshrined on this rock-like memorial or pavilion are texts excerpted from the abolitionist, Frederick Douglass’, July 5, 1852 speech, What the Fourth of July Means to the Slave, which critiques how freedom is unequally distributed to people of color.

Direct gravure etching on two copper plates printed on two sheets of gampi paper, joined and backed with Sekishu Kozo paper. Printed as an edition of 25 plus 8 proofs. Signed and numbered 11/25 on the recto in pencil. Co-published by Mullowney Printing and Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco.

Image: 56 1/2 x 40 1/2 inches

Sheet: 62 x 44 inches

65 1/2 x 48 inches framed

This print, the second work in the Imaginary Monuments series, is the representation of a fictional monument to the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights—a document intended to solidify the belief in and commitment to basic human rights for all people. The historic pillar or column inscribed with the entire (legible) text of the United Nations’ document is based on the 1871 monument to Napoleon’s victory at the Place Vendôme in Paris. It is shown in a state of decay, as if its foundation were crumbling. The teetering pillar is supported by a makeshift system of pipes, scaffolding, and bamboo, and enclosed behind security fencing, making it inaccessible. The encircling cityscape spans the breadth of the globe, from the floating slums of Asia and shantytowns of Latin America and Africa in the foreground, to a skyline of iconic skyscrapers from international cities.

Co-published by Mullowney Printing and Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco

Medium: Direct gravure etching on four copper plates printed on four sheets of handmade gampi paper, joined and backed with sekishu kozo paper

Edition 25 + 8 proofs

Dimensions: 62 ½ x 48 inches unframed, 66 x 53 inches framed

Co-published by Mullowney Printing and Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco. 

Edition 25 + 8 proofs

Dimensions: 48 x 63 inches unframed

Medium: Direct gravure etching on nine copper plates printed on nine sheets of handmade gampi paper, joined and backed with sekishu kozo paper