GLEN SKIEN

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Glen Skien is a North Queensland artist/printmaker who relocated to Brisbane in 2007 to complete both a masters and doctorate of visual arts. After 10 years of tutoring in printmaking and associate lecturer with Griffith University Queensland College of Art, his works are often a hybrid response of print, collage and artists’ book forms. Skien has recently developed a series of community-based workshops Material Thinking: The Poetics of Process that reinforce the intuitive and poetic associations that underpin the artist’s personal studio practice.

CONNECTION TO BALDESSIN STUDIO

My connection with Baldessin Studio was initiated as recipient of the 2018 State Library of Victoria Amor Residency at Baldessin Press & Studio. My time at Baldessin Studio culminated in several immersive days in the affirming environment and fabulous studio facilities under the experienced guidance of artist and studio technician Silvi Glattauer.  I remain lastingly thankful for the opportunity presented by Tess at the iconic Baldessin Press & Studio. - Dr. Glen Skien

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

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Within the gathering of the poetic image, as Bachelard advocates, the past rises to the level of the present. What is achieved through the process of poetic imaginings is the instigation of a primal condition of non-knowing, not as a form of ignorance but as a complexity of associations arising above rational thought and structures of knowledge. In adopting a poetic gaze towards the archive, the outcomes of my response as recipient of the 2018 State Library of Victoria Creative Fellowship embraced Bachelard’s dictum to be moved by the vast archive of insignificant things. Resourcing photographs devoid of any fixed historical narrative, the outcomes are mixes of hybrid artist book forms that incorporate photographic etching, collage and thin thread bindings.