Foothills #8, 2024

Foothills #8 builds on a series of paintings Caragh Thuring made for the exhibition 'Foothills of Pleasure' at Thomas Dane Gallery in May 2023. The works in this series are all versions of the mother painting from the exhibition, named ‘The Foothills of Pleasure’ to describe the geology of volcanic landscapes, as well as intensifying human passions. These foothills, fertile but perilous, are a place where life and death coexist and where rock is melted, folded and reformed in an endless cycle. Through this process of self-imitation, Thuring’s unique visual language builds new compositions that share moments of connection, but also diverge profoundly, reframing the same scene repeatedly from different vantage points and ranges. For this two-plate etching edition, the eighth work in the Foothills series, Thuring has worked directly onto both plates, making use of aquatint, hard ground, soft ground and dry point techniques to create subtly varying tones. This work has been made especially on the occasion of Studio Voltaire's 30th Anniversary. Throughout the anniversary year, a series of limited editions by leading international artists will be released to raise important funds for Studio Voltaire's artistic and community programmes.