Description
About this piece:
Encroachment traces the gradual transformation of a natural space into an industrialized one. Imagined satellite imagery is laser-etched into wood blocks, creating layered prints that chart the slow creep of infrastructure across the landscape. The interior pages are handmade paper crafted from recycled waste, while the backing incorporates fibers gathered from the land itself. Bound between industrially machined wooden covers, the book embodies the tension between natural space and human intervention.
The piece reflects on the commodification of land, and how preservation and exploitation often coexist at the same margins. Each etched image captures a moment in the landscape’s evolution, a quiet record of how roads and developments overwrite what seemed immutable. By pairing handcrafted paper with machine-cut wood, the book mirrors the dual forces shaping our environment: the tactile intimacy of the natural world and the rigid efficiency of industry, intertwined in uneasy balance.
Materials:
paper, wood, ink
About the artist:
Cole Hancock is an MFA candidate in Printmaking at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. They graduated from Florida State University with a BFA in studio art and a concentration in printmaking in 2021. In 2019, they became director of Phyllis Straus Gallery in Tallahassee, FL, and in 2020 was awarded the IDEA grant to begin research into environment-industry interactions. Following graduation, they returned to East Tennessee to continue their art practice exploring postindustrial culture in conversation with the environment. Their practice involves low budget roadtripping to document these interactions; by combining print with paper craft, they contemplate the nature of our relationship with the land. As an Appalachian-based itinerant artist, they explore the coevolution and preservation of ecosystems with human infrastructure. Cole regularly attends SGCI (Southern Graphics Council International) conferences, and has been exhibited by local and national galleries such as the Lawrence Arts Center and Relay Ridge, Knoxville.
