After a crunch-tastic holiday season and some fantastic high-speed framing from the good people at Earls Court Gallery (seriously Bob, I owe you one), I’m pleased to report that The Fisher King & Other Mythologies is now installed for your viewing pleasure at the Hamilton Public Library’s Gallery on 4. After the past several years of working with books as a central feature of my studio practice, my hometown central library seemed the ideal setting to premiere a new series of drawings continuing on this theme.

Illumination (detail), 2011. Watercolour pencil on book page.

The official version:

Stephanie Vegh
The Fisher King & Other Mythologies
January 5-31, 2012
Gallery on 4, Hamilton Public Library

Vegh’s book-based drawings respond to the peculiarities of illustrated histories, creating a tension between the book’s status as inalienable fact and the reader’s imagination. In a new series of drawings, scenes of medieval Europe conspire with displaced marine life to evoke the Arthurian myth of the Fisher King and that story’s condemnation of the knight Perceval’s failure to ask questions of the marvels he beheld there.

Mont-Saint-Michel: The Soaring Spirit of an Era (detail), 2011. Watercolour pencil on book page.

The story of the Fisher King has much to offer within the wider concerns that have attracted me to the most overlooked elements of civilizations under threat, from the rats of The Plagues to the vanishing honeybees of our own time. When the fledgling knight Perceval arrives at the castle of the Fisher King, he finds an ailing realm ruled by a crippled king whose sole pleasure comes of fishing the river nearby. The Fisher King can be cured, but only if one arrives with a willingness to inquire into the strange ritual that takes place in the castle every evening - the procession of a bowl and a ceaselessly bleeding lance, relics of the crucifixion. Perceval, while deeply curious, refuses to question the meaning of the ritual for fear of appearing foolish; the Fisher King’s suffering, therefore, continues unrelieved by the critical inquiry that might have saved him and him kingdom both.

Deliberations in the Chapter Hall (detail), 2011. Watercolour pencil on book page.

From a technical standpoint, The Fisher King presented unique challenges apart from those of Age of Enlightenment (excerpts of which are also included in this installation). It’s no exaggeration to say that I’ve now drawn hundreds of honeybees - variations in form aside, inserting them into the printed fabric of a book page was eased by practice. The Fisher King tackles a wider diversity of aquatic life (I’d simply say “fish” if it weren’t for that beached whale) even more alien than bees. This also represented my first foray into manipulating greyscale images - while they lend a sombre mood to the medieval character of the series compared to the lavish colours of Age of Enlightenment, the palette is also staunchly unforgiving of error. Where erasing into the book page was previously a technique to establish the drawing’s footprint, in works such as Deliberations in the Chapter Hall, the majority of the drawing is done by erasure with limited use of black pencil to define forms - more than ever, the slim margin for error in these works is laid bare.

A World Under Siege by Demons and Tempters (detail), 2011. Watercolour pencil on book page.

The Fisher King & Other Mythologies continues at Gallery on 4 until January 31 - please refer to the Hamilton Public Library’s website for their exceptionally generous opening hours.

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