Tuesday - Saturday
10am - 4pm
FREE entry
Meet the Artist : Saturday 15 October 11am-2pm

[IM]PERFECTION is Rob Mills first one-man show and represents his solar plate printmaking from its inception in 2016 to the present day. Initially, he began creating solar plate etchings (also known as photopolymer etchings) as
a way to regain a hands-on aspect to his photography which, as time went by, had become solely digital and computer based. Not only did he miss the days of messing around in darkrooms but also wanted to find a way to make his photographs stand out from the millions of other images that flooded the internet.

To learn the technique he attended a two day course, led by Susie Turner MA, at the internationally renowned Curwen Print Study Centre, then based in South Cambridgeshire. After that, with the encouragement of their
endlessly patient and hugely knowledgable technician/tutor Anne Marike Pit, he discovered a joy in the creative process of printmaking itself and has continued to develop his work at their premises in Linton and since their
recent move, Great Thurlow.

”I think it’s fair to say that now I view my photography not as an end in itself but rather the starting point for my expressions in printmaking.

The exhibition title refers to my fascination with objects that might be considered imperfect but through degradation over time have become somehow more perfect and to me more beautiful than their earlier
form. The Japanese have a concept for this known as Wabi-Sabi, generally defined as ‘A beauty of things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete’ 1, an idea that resonates deeply with me and is reflected in many of the subjects I choose to photograph as the basis for my printmaking.

My prints, however, cannot be described as Wabi-Sabi as I deliberately try to accentuate the beauty of what I see through lighting and composition in the photography stage and the way I ink and colour my plates prior to printing. That said, I don’t want them just to be pretty images but to present these dead flowers, rusty brackets and so on in a such a way that those who see my work might come to view the world around them in a slightly different light.”