Print relay: alumni create official Olympic Games artworks

Goldsmiths alumni have helped celebrate the Rio 2016 Olympic Games by producing limited-edition prints marking Team GB’s involvement.

Sarah Jones, BA (Hons) Art 1981 and MFA 1996, and Sam Taylor-Johnson, who graduated from the Department of Art in 1990, have created the official works alongside Tracey Emin, Anne Hardy, Howard Hodgkin, Eddie Peake, Benjamin Senior and David Shrigley.

The eight artists were asked to “create unique images in celebration of Rio and Brazil, with the spirit of Team GB as their inspiration”.

Jones’s 76x60cm work is entitled Cabinet (Spiral). The piece continues Jones's "Cabinet" series, in which an arrangement in a shallow field undergoes keen formal scrutiny.

Familiar ornamental objects are transformed into a magnificent display inspired by the Olympic torch and flame, drawing closely on the rich legacy of twentieth century Olympic prints and posters.

Cabinet (Spiral) is also inspired by photographic history; in early black and white photographic experiments, fine glassware was photographed in order to examine the medium’s ability to render clear materials. Here, Jones’s vibrant palette of glowing yellow, translucent blue, and limpid green references the colours of the iconic Brazilian flag.

It is an Archival inkjet print on Canson Baryta Photographique 310 gsm paper produced by Grieger in Düsseldorf.

Taylor-Johnson’s 74x60cm work is entitled Wanderer Above the Sea of Dreams. The piece features the artist suspended in mid-air by balloons. Wanderer Above the Sea of Dreams draws on the classic motif of Taylor-Johnson’s earlier Self Portrait Suspended series, transposed here onto surreal, dream-like desert setting.

Wanderer Above the Sea of Dreams continues Taylor-Johnson’s ongoing exploration of weight and gravity, and marks the prolific artist and filmmaker's first foray into photo collage.

In a playful nod to the buoyant energy of the 2016 Olympic host country, the balloons bear the design of the Brazilian flag. Taylor-Johnson shot the craggy desert background on location in the US, giving an American twist to Rio’s iconic Sugarloaf Mountain.

It is a 20-colour screenprint, solvent-based ink on 410gsm Somerset Tub-Sized paper produced by Coriander Studio.

Both are in editions of 100 and are available to buy from 2 August 2016 at the Counter Editions website.

This year’s prints follow those in 2012, when four Goldsmiths alumni created official works for the London 2012 Games.

Then Bridget Riley, Gary Hume, Bob and Roberta Smith and Michael Craig-Martin created prints marking London’s hosting of the Games.

These can also be viewed on the Counter Editions website.