In Precious Objects, Becky Long-Smith uses printmaking to question how value is assigned, preserved, and remembered over time. The work sits within an ongoing body of practice that examines material memory, labour, and care through slow, tactile processes, positioning print not only as an image, but as a record of time spent making.
The print was produced using a stitched colography plate, with stitching treated as both a drawing method and a form of construction. While Long-Smith has previously worked with stitch in prints and drawings, this project marks the first time the technique has been embedded directly into the plate itself. By piercing, threading, and building into the printing surface, the plate becomes an active site of labour and accumulation, rather than a neutral carrier of imagery.
The resulting forms are intentionally ambiguous. They suggest cells, bacteria, and microscopic organisms, while also evoking fragments uncovered through excavation. This uncertainty between the biological and the archaeological allows the work to operate across deep time, beyond a strictly human scale. Rather than pointing to a single interpretation, the imagery invites close looking and sustained attention.
Selective gilding is used to draw focus to textures that might otherwise be overlooked. Gold appears not as a symbol of luxury, but as a tool for questioning what is considered precious and why. By elevating subtle marks and stitched lines, the work reframes value as something bound up with care, repetition, and material engagement, rather than rarity or status.
Precious Objects reflects Long-Smith’s broader interest in working slowly and attentively, often within limited windows of time. Living and working in Yorkshire, she balances multiple jobs alongside her studio practice, approaching the time she is able to make work as a ritual. This has shaped a practice where time, patience, and care are central themes. Her longstanding fascination with natural systems, scientific imagery, and historical attempts to categorise the world also informs the visual language of the work.
The project continues to evolve through the development of a series of smaller prints using the same stitched intaglio approach and recurring forms. These works will exist in very small editions, emphasising variation and touch, and allowing meaning to build gradually across the series rather than resolving into a fixed endpoint.
