Deborah Hercun
Describe your background
I was born in Canada to a Scottish mother and a Polish father, and spent my entire childhood moving from one place to another, one country to another, as my father was in the military.
I didn’t notice it at the time, but having such shallow roots had a profound effect on my early life and continues to do so. You learn to adapt quickly – another posting means new friends, new schools, new experiences. You also learn to be more open to difference, but you often feel you belong everywhere and nowhere, an outsider.
Are any of your family artists or printmakers?
There are no practising artists in my family, but from a very early age I adopted my maternal family’s obsession with classic cinema, and this extended into photography for me. (All those shadows and oblique angles.) I was fortunate to have a family who loved the arts – music, literature, architecture were all part of my informal schooling.
Today you are an artist, but this has not always been the case?
I always knew I wanted to do something creative. In high school, I was enrolled in a programme where I learned how to do everything at a TV studio, producing my own TV show at 16, and working at a radio station where I played with sound. Editing began to be a part of what I wanted to do, cutting and splicing sound and images, while still maintaining a rhythm.
I worked in publishing for many years as a managing editor, putting books together. I loved distilling to get to the essence, collecting all those fragments to make a harmonious whole. Unfortunately the job became less and less creative, so publishing and I left each other.
A chance afternoon playing with lino at the Barbican in 2019 changed everything. I was hooked on ink and print, and threw myself into printmaking. I should have known this is where my life would lead – after all, my school in Germany was named after Johannes Gutenberg.
I made up for lost time with myriad workshops and courses at London Print Studio, East London Printmakers, City Lit and Morley College, where I still participate in a printmaking workshop. I am also a member of the Printmakers Council, Southbank Printmakers, Kew Studio and ELP, and have my own studio at Worton Hall in Isleworth.
What is your preferred medium and why?
I have tried most printmaking techniques in the past few years, to feel what was right for me and what I wanted to express. My photographic work led me to using photopolymer plates to create images that are evocative, verging on the abstract. I want to take it away from the original image, to ‘make strange’, leaving the viewer to ponder for an extra second or two about the image – part play, part intention.
Is there one work that best illustrates your artistic goals?
I was told that my works have a ‘profound stillness’, ironic given my peripatetic background. I have an obsession with time and loss, fragments and perspectives – all those shadows and oblique angles again. In my opinion, South Bank One best illustrates this. In a completely different tone, Venice (Leica IIIf) has a vague otherness that worked.
