walter oltmann
Walters latest prints are closely related to his wire sculptures and wall hangings where he employs hand-fabricated processes of weaving and knotting to create intensely worked surfaces and detailed images. The process of making such wire nets is slow and emphasizes time as a tangible quality embodied in the material. Walter allows his chosen imagery to resonate with this quality in evoking fragility and the passage of time. His work has a definite textile sensibility , where he often makes connections to domestic textile practices and decorative ornaments in African and Western craft traditions.
Sungazer, Lithograph, Edition 4 of 25, 620x450mm
Spread, Lithograph, Edition 1 of 30, 760x570mm
“Spread plays on the double meaning of the word: ‘Spread’ as in a textile covering (e.g. bed-spread or table-spread) and ‘Spread’ as in the notion of spreading outwards, scattering and disseminating. Various flying insects and airborne seeds radiate outwards from a central dandelion form to suggest dispersal and an extension by growth. I have tried to give dynamic visual expression to an unfolding that suggests an increase or multiplication outwards".
The Night Garden, Lithograph, Edition 4 of 35, 715x565mm
"Night Garden depicts an interwoven nocturnal scene of plants, insects and reptiles in bluish tints. With a hint towards Paul Klee’s enchanted garden artworks, I wanted to create a sense of bristling energies, movements and textures within a patch of cactus garden".