For every major sculpture Ana Maria Pacheco produces there is a considerable body of work on paper, mainly prints, representing what she describes as her ‘circumnavigation’. In this process she explores situations, relationships, images and themes that feed into the sculpture, an early example being this series of ten drypoints, ‘Terra Ignota’. In these powerfully imaginative works, passengers perform the gamut of human behaviours on boats that are stranded on stilts or swinging in mid-air.

As is always the case in Pacheco’s work the completed sculpture, 'The Longest Journey', presents a monumental distillation of these “circumnavigations”. Ten figures are adrift on a boat without power or crew. The adults in the stern are questioning or contemplative; the five huge, white-robed figures in the prow more watchful of the boat’s course and its passengers. A young child takes keenest interest of all, a lookout precariously perched on a stool amidships, linking the two groups. Where is this 32 foot Broads cruiser headed? Is this the longest journey we all undertake?

Pacheco’s ‘circumnavigations’ in print are executed with all the skill and imagination of a major figure in contemporary printmaking.

Robert Bush, 2020

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Image: Ana Maria Pacheco, Terra Ignota 2, drypoint (detail)