Image: Manifold Editions, London
Manifold Editions has launched ‘Veronica’s Veil’ by Rachel Howard, its first collaboration with the British painter, comprising a pair of etchings made with Japanese Hosokawa paper chine collé and inspired by Howard’s ‘Veronica’ series of paintings. The project marks the first time Howard’s use of pattern has been translated into print form.
The editions depict intricately patterned textiles that softly undulate across the surface as they catch the light, an effect reminiscent of lace curtains rippling in the wind.
Howard says that ‘Veronica’s Veil’ captures ‘a moment of intimacy and separation,’ adding that she wanted the moiré-patterned voiles to preserve ‘a transient glimpse into another person’s sacred interior.’
The title refers to the story of Saint Veronica’s veil and to ‘the notion that anguish can be transformed into an illuminating kind of beauty.’ The editions continue Howard’s exploration of tensions between presence and absence, closeness and distance, clarity and obscurity, and what can and cannot be seen.
Born in 1969, Howard is a British painter whose process grapples with uncertainty, fragility, beauty and violence; known for both figurative and abstract work, she views the two styles as equal and mutually informing, rejecting any formal hierarchy.
