Threefold 14
a good bye for Coatesville, a hello to our printing press, and preparing for Printopia
Welcome to the Threefold Letter. This month saying good bye to my childhood home, setting up our new studio, and new printing for Printopia.
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On the 21st of January 2023 I wrote
All at once we are all moving house. Not yet and yet. With little notice Richard and I have had to move from New Lynn to Glen Eden. Our own upheaval is quickly followed by Lily’s as she and Nellie move out to Papakura, the other side of the city. This evening, we are dismantling Nellie’s crib and playing a game of tetris in a tall moving van Lily has rented. The garage is inspected for other furniture and belongings Lily might like to take. The house is perched between paths branched. The new driveway forks around it, and while these quick moves land us in new homes in Auckland, Coatesville as our home, as our always-there-refuge, is sitting at a precipice. One day soon, but not yet, and will it ever, there will be moving trucks for all of the belongings at Coatesville. A near future sits on the crest of a hill and none of us can tell how far in the distance it lies, but we can see it now.
In the preceding months of this diary entry, a new drive way had been set in concrete as the land around the house was subdivided. It marked the beginning of major change for us at my parents’ house where my sister and I, and our cousin Lily, grew up.
The near future arrived this month. On the Wednesday after Easter, after the last of the (many) moving trucks had departed from Coatesville, the keys were handed over to new owners. Saying good bye to the always-there-refuge was colder than I expected. Almost detached.
From my last day there, my photos depict an early autumn moment of the garden. The sky is grey white and the light is warm. I’m not sure that I’ve actually said good bye yet. Perhaps, as these photos crystallise into a memory, the good bye will become real.
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There’s been a lot of progress on our studio. The press arrived, all 700 kg of it, swaying slightly on the truck mounted crane as it was moved into the doorway.
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On Monday I spent my first day printing in the studio: a quiet happiness in solitude, paper, and ink. I have made a number of new prints specifically for Printopia this weekend where I will have a stall at the print fair. Printopia is a three day festival of all things print running from Friday night through Sunday (2-4 May ’25) at Corban Estate Arts Centre in Henderson. Perhaps I’ll see you there?
