El Perro

Mixed media xylography paste-up, Moseley, Birmingham, UK

Homemade baren (top)

Homemade baren (bottom)

The frame was already on that wall, so I felt it needed an image. The figure of the dog (‘perro’ in Spanish) was made using the same woodblock as the dog in La Fogata (another exhibited piece). I used my homemade baren to press the paper to the wood to transfer the image. Professional wallpaper glue was used to stick it to the wall. You always need a dog at a bonfire!

Curator’s Notes: Paste-up is a composition on a sheet of paper, board, or other backing applied to a wall usually using wheatpaste. This technique allows street artists to put up detailed images quickly.

Xylography is an ancient printing technique developed in China and Japan in the 8th and 9th centuries. The image in carved in relief into a wooden block, which is then inked. Paper is pressed to the block to transfer the image.

Baren refers to a hand tool with a flat bottom and a knotted handle used in Japanese Japanese woodblock printing to burnish the back of the paper in order to transfer ink from the plate to the sheet.