Cyanotype experiments part II

I've been getting more inspiration from the original essay on Tentacular Thinking in Donna Haraway's Staying with Trouble: Makin Kin in the Chthulucene that inspired this project.

"The tentacular ones tangle me in SF.  Their many appendages make string figures, they entwine me in the making of speculative fabulation, science fiction, science fact, speculative feminism... SF is storytelling and fact telling; it is the patterning of possible worlds and possible times, material-semiotic worlds, gone, here, and yet to come."  (Harraway 2016)

I wanted to capture this entanglement, messy and complex, not rooted in a particular time and telling a story of complex multispecies cohabitation.  I was inspired by a picture in a newspaper of a giant octopus and a diver, which I've used here in  abstract form to try and illustrate the potential and the tension in that potential for friendship, collaboration and interconnected lives. I used the ghostly (non specific) figures to symbolise the  non linear nature of this, and played with marks and lines to explore describing entanglements.

Ive introduced a Sgraffito effect (scraping away the acrylic layer to show the oil pastel below) to literally underscore the messy cthonic tangles and provide a layer to be revealed.  Its very satisfying to do and has a visceral urgency that appeals.

The final piece has actually ended up being more representational than the earlier experiments.  I brought in quite a lot of elements from earlier drawings, but still wanted to use the Sgraffito effect and scratchy mark making to represent both the profusion of underwater life and messy entanglements of a multispecies future.  The Octopus I wanted imbue with a more mythic quality so I used white ink under the acrylic which I then brushed away to uncover it like a mosaic or archaeological dig.  The humans diving down to greet the octopus i've left deliberately vague, so that its just an impression of movement and urgency and optimism.  On reflection I wonder if ive over complicated it, and the different effects are too much combined.  Id like to try a slightly more abstract version, with more movement from the octopus and slightly different colours..