Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)

Audra Knutson’s work, The Death , is a hand-pulled linocut print inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge . Set in what appears to be a pathway inside a small town, the scene features two central figures: a man seated on a chair with a skull on his lap, and a girl writing the message ‘voilà votre mort, monsieur’ on a nearby wall. The girl’s message echoes the expression in the man’s face, who appears resigned or as described by Knutson “accepting death or a monotony in living, and not embracing beauty.” The large areas of solid ink in contrast with the delicate linework create a sense of theatricality and drama, and add to the mysterious and surreal nature of the scene.

Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)

Audra Knutson’s work The Oblivion was carved and printed in conjunction with the print The Death . Also a hand-printed linocut, many of the details in this work are based on photocopies of images sourced by the artist from her local library. At the time she was making these works, she recalls looking at ‘beautiful, sad, timeless and stark photographs taken in old-work segments of Europe and being influenced by their aesthetic and emotional gravitas.