Programme Note

In November 2022, I visited the National Museum in Oslo and saw an exhibition dedicated to Giovanni Battista Piranesi. I was immediately struck by the sheer imagination and craftsmanship in his etchings, which depict fantastical buildings, vertiginous staircases and crumbling ruins commandeered by nature. I was amazed.

Later, I discovered that I owned a book of Piranesi's complete etchings. Studying it at home, with the time to pause and revisit images, I came to fully appreciate their extraordinary detail, creating the illusion that they are alive and moving. This sense of movement and the freedom to browse, pause and revisit etchings at different speeds became a key influence on the piece.

Etched is fast-paced, changing character rapidly, as if flicking, stopping, observing, revisiting, pausing and wandering through a book of Piranesi etchings. Those that had a particular impact on the work include Antiquus bivii viarum appiae at ardeatinae... (View of the junction of the Appian and Ardeatine ways); Carcere VII: The Drawbridge (2nd state); Carcere XIV: The Gothic Arch (2nd state); and Veduta interna del Tempio della Tosse... (Interior View of the Temple of Cough...)