Wilhelmina Peace, The Walking Lesson, work on paper (etching), 58 x 76 cm
Year: 2024
Medium(s): etching with aquatint, sugar lift and drypoint on Somerset velvet paper
Size: 58 x 76 cm (image / plate size: 42 x 59 cm)
8 editions, numbered and signed, and artist's proof.
(The number of the available edition might be different from the number displayed in the image)
- £500.00
Shipping - Collection from the gallery's office in 3-5 business days. Shipped in 3-5 business days from Northern Ireland, UK.
Return - This work is eligible for return.
Artist - Selected Recognitions
- Recipient of the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair Prize (UK)
- Extensively exhibited in Northern Ireland, Dublin, London, and internationally (incl. Royal Ulster Academy Annual Exhibition in Belfast, and Bankside Gallery in London)
- Work included in private collections nationally and internationally
Further information
Artist's commentary about this work: The work presents three figures enclosed within a dark interior and caught in a strange, almost ritualistic procession. A towering female figure, or giantess, stands with her eyes closed, gently clapping. Her long hair trails across the floor towards a diminutive man in bouffon attire, elevated on stilts, one leg raised as though poised to kick the figure before him: a disproportionately large baby crouched in the foreground, reaching towards the lock of hair.
Enigmatic and darkly humorous, the scene draws its tension from the exaggerated scale of its figures and their uneasy relationships. Within Peace’s oeuvre, the giantess evokes the feminine spirit, the mother and the Other. Her monumental presence suggests both the weight of her role in sustaining society and a sense of untapped potential. Her gentle clapping, seemingly intended to encourage the child’s first steps, contrasts sharply with the little man’s apparent desire to assert himself through violence, threatening to knock the child down before she has found her footing.
The child, meanwhile, is absorbed by the strand of hair emerging almost magically from beneath her. It offers a tenuous connection to the maternal figure. It is at once something to steady herself with, yet, if pulled, might also disrupt the fragile equilibrium of the three figures. The work thus evokes a precarious balance between tenderness and aggression, protection and vulnerability, and the forces that enable or obstruct our progress.
Wilhelmina Peace is an award-winning emerging artist and printmaker. Working across drawing and printmaking, particularly etching and lithography, Peace’s practice is deeply informed by her background in anthropology. Her work explores myth, fairytale, and folklore as frameworks through which she examines the inner processes of the human psyche and personal development.
Find out more about Wilhelmina Peace and view all her works on the artist's page.
