Relic: Dabberlocks 3

About the artist

I am a printmaker working with foraged materials to reconsider how seaweed is seen and understood. My practice is shaped by the processes of searching, selection, and direct contact, using found specimens to explore form, structure, and trace.Through cameraless photogravure, I create prints from drift Alaria esculenta, locally known as Dabberlocks. Gathered along the tideline, the seaweed is already marked by movement and displacement. Under exposure to light and direct contact with the plate, its density and translucency are translated into tone. I am particularly drawn to rare spiralled forms%u2014atypical for this species%u2014which are both visually compelling and hard-won through sustained looking.The prints are my response to place and precedent. Working on the North East coast of Scotland, walks along the shoreline and awareness of Victorian seaweed pressing have shaped my approach. While informed by the historical practices of nature printing and early photographic methods, I am led by the material itself and the conditions in which it is found. Across the different series, I explore how seaweed can be experienced as drift, relic, fragment, or structure%u2014forms that shift between observation and abstraction, and between present encounter and the echo of past practices.

Portia Knight is a printmaker creating cameraless polymer photogravure etchings using seaweed foraged from the Scottish coastline. Her Art History education informs her work, now focused on the hands-on exploration of found materials. Portia%u2019s prints have featured in several prestigious exhibitions, including a notable highlight in 2025 when she exhibited and sold a full edition of her print Dabberlocks at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London. In 2024, she was interviewed by BBC Radio Scotland for Out of Doors, sharing insights into her fascination with seaweed. Through her innovative use of this natural material, Portia reimagines nature printmaking, inviting viewers to reconsider this overlooked resource.

More about Portia Knight

About the artwork

I am a printmaker working with foraged materials to reconsider how seaweed is seen and understood. My practice is shaped by searching, selection, and direct contact, utilising found material to explore form, structure, and surface. I am currently developing several series of cameraless polymer photogravure etchings using Alaria esculenta (Dabberlocks). Gathered along the tideline the seaweed is already marked by movement and displacement. Through exposure to light and contact with the plate, its density and translucency are translated into tone. In Relic, Dabberlocks is approached as excavated material%u2014collected as drift and preserved as surface rather than specimen. The prints adopt an archaeological mode of looking, attending to trace, residue, and the partial survival of form. Rooted in the North East coast of Scotland and informed by Victorian seaweed pressing, the work reflects on how material is discovered and re-seen, connecting present encounters with the echo of past practices