Flora McLachlan’s work investigates the idea of inspiration; a breath from elsewhere which directs the artist in their work. An altered state is implied, a heightened mode of existence, and a conversation with the Other. She sees this state as a receptive, shamanistic mode, so she uses ritual and divination in her work to provoke unexpected connections. The rituals are invented by her to reach into the collective unconscious and swim in a deeper current of being than the everyday. The copper plate enters the mordant as into a witch’s cauldron; working like this, you are writing incantations and casting spells. Flora responds to the material nature of the print matrix, whether metal plate, wood, or lithographic stone. She lets the mordant or ink run, drip and burn, making unexpected traces, observing the flow and following its suggestions, to dream her images into being.
