Woodfine Wine make organic, biodynamic wines. Production is grounded in the ecosystem that the vines grow in, using ancient techniques with minimal intervention. It is important that the community that surrounds the vineyard has links with them. They asked me, as a local artist to create original artwork that joined with their brand identity.
After a conversation with Richard, the owner, we realised we both had an interest in fungi and I showed him some work I had already made relating to mycelial networks. We felt this visually represented the connections to the ecosystem and the community that is at the heart of the Woodfine Wine ethos. I hand made 100 monotype printed labels for their first harvest. Each label was unique.
We search for connection within ourselves, to another, to the earth, to something archaic, other worldly and almost beyond perception. It has been there from the very beginning and is forever a journey of reparation and reinstating an internal connection. Invisible strands extend out from each of us, joining us beyond time and through space. Like a mycelial network we share sensations, memory and experience through it. The artistic object brings to life these strands and becomes a tangible connection that is represented in boundless ways through the object to the viewer.
Charlotte Cooper
The process of creating the labels left reverse imprints on the plates I had used. I printed them on an etching press as a set of four dark field monotype prints. Two of these prints are displayed on the wall at The Oarsman Pub and Bistro in Marlow and another was given as a gift to Heston Blumenthal.