A story of collaboration: The making of 'Merry Go Round' by John McLean
We are delighted to be exhibiting John McLean’s Merry Go Round as part of our current exhibition, The Language of Abstraction. The work is a set of 9 etchings, inspired by Debussy’s Chevaux de Bois. During its creation, John McLean developed a form of Parkinson’s and could no longer visit The Print Studio, Cambridge, but despite the challenges of John’s illness, he and Kip Gresham continued to collaborate to complete the work. In a recent talk at the gallery, Kip told the story in his own words…
Merry Go Round by John McLean, currently exhibited as part of The Language of Abstraction at Fen Ditton Gallery, February 2022
“I worked a lot with John [McLean], we did all sorts of things. Somewhere around 2000, we had a conversation about making a folio with poetry. The [folio] kept stalling, and I couldn’t work out why, until I realised that what John wanted was a poet with Tourette’s. If I could have introduced him to John Cooper Clarke, it would have gone beautifully. Eventually, he [John McLean] explained to me that it wasn’t poetry we would do it in conjunction with, it was music. He said ‘I’m not interested in words, I’m not interested in another language that requires translation, I’m interested in sensory stuff’.
And so, Merry Go Round was made. The title comes from Chevaux de Bois, which means ‘horses in wood’ and is a title of a piece by Debussy - what John was interested in were the rhythms and the cycles that were going on in there. If you listen to the music and look at the work, you realise that there really is a very direct connection.
When John developed a version of Parkinson’s, which is a cruel thing, and he couldn’t come down to the studio anymore, so I had to work out a way of working with him where I could effectively take the studio to him. I’m not like the Crommelynk Brothers who build a studio for Picasso in the south of France… I can’t do that! But John was living in the Barbican, so I got all the etching colours I could and I printed them onto big flat sheets. I also gave him sheets of True Grain, which is a material that I have been involved in developing, which is a material that performs like a lithographic stone. From that I could make photo etching plates by shining a UV through the drawing that he has made which burns it onto a plate, and I can print from that.
John McLean and Kip Gresham working on Merry Go Round
There are two basic layers [to each print]; the black is the etching that was drawn onto the True Grain – drawn with dilute gouache, Indian ink, wax pastel, graphite stick… all kinds of things. It goes from the finest, lightest, smokiest tone through to a full black, all printed on the same plate. Then the next bit is the colour - John cut the sheets of etching inks up because he could still handle scissors and a knife and positioned the shapes of colour where he wanted them. I then, literally, used the paper that he cut to make a mask to create a further photo etching plate and then they’re printed ‘a la poupee’. A la poupee means ‘by the dolly’ and a poupee is one of the French dollies with a skirt. If you roll up a piece of felt, into a cigar like shape, you can ink one part, then wipe it back with scrim and then tissue, then move onto the next colour. Each of those coloured shaped with inked individually… and you have to be very precise! The scrap rate on these was very very high!
I think it’s probably one of the best things I’ve done. It hits all the basis, I’m very proud of it and I miss John like hell.”
You can view Merry Go Round and other works of some of Kip Gresham’s most significant collaborations in The Language of Abstraction. The exhibition is open until Sunday 27th February.
Opening times:
Fridays to Sunday 10am - 5pm
Wednesdays by appointment, contact info@fendittongallery.com to book
For more information and to view available works, visit fendittongallery.com/the-language-of-abstraction