Engulf: Deplete - Oil

David Armes

£50

Medium

Letterpress

Dimensions

23 W x 33 H x 0.8 D cm

Delivery

From £5.00 More info

Year

2026

Description

The Engulf: Deplete series is a trilogy of books about sources of energy around my home and studio. They consider the power that our species has harnessed and the risks that process poses to us.
Part one - Water // Part two - Coal // Part three - Oil.

When I moved to this area of westernmost West Yorkshire in 2015, I soon noticed an early morning freight train that came thundering up the valley incline that leads past our house. We could set our clocks by it, approximately, and had no need to set an actual alarm clock. 6/6.30am, every weekday. It returned in the other direction, running empty, downhill, around late morning, but it was much quieter in this direction - it often slipped past without me noticing.

Eventually, curiosity got the better of me and I entered a world of freight train enthusiasts, logging timings and plotting routes. It turned out this train made up of about 8-10 filthy tankers was carrying bitumen from the east to the west coast. From Immingham Docks near Grimsby over to Preston Docks. One day, I got my friend Ben Rutherford who lives in Preston to take a group of us down to the docks to find out where the train finishes up. And that's as much as I could glean. In my head, this train carries materials dragged out of the earth in Iraq over to Ireland. Two lands that follow each other alphabetically and are (con)joined by notions of rampant British exceptionalism and colonial exploitation, hence the line in the book about "the end of violent extraction".

The book itself follows the same format as the first two iterations of this series. A poem runs through the book, interspersed with images made from the tools of letterpress printing, in this case type high rule and dots. Train tracks, oil barrels, criss-crossing, multiplying, then running out just as fossil fuels deplete.

Details

Medium

Letterpress

Weight

0.25kg

Dimensions

23 W x 33 H x 0.8 D cm

Delivery

Delivery available to these regions:

Region

Price

UK Mainland

£5.00

Scottish Highlands and Islands

£5.00

Isle of Man, Isles of Scilly, Isle of Wight

£5.00

Channel Islands

£5.00

Packed flat securely in a reinforced card envelope.

Legals

Terms of Sale

Prices are as listed on Exhibtd.
Payments are securely processed through Stripe.
Orders will be processed and dispatched within 5 business days of receiving the order.
Estimated delivery times: depend on order territory. UK is around 5-7 days.
Delivery will be tracked and tracking information provided once the order has been dispatched.
Delays caused by postal services are beyond my control.
No returns unless the work is damaged - evidence will be required.
Please contact me before returning any items so we can arrange the process smoothly.
Shipping costs for returns are the responsibility of the buyer unless the item is damaged.
Please contact me if your item doesn’t arrive within 7 business days of dispatch (UK). EU and ROW will take longer.
If your item arrives damaged, please contact me within 5 days of receipt with photos and a description of the damage.
Refunds will be processed directly to your bank account. This is dependent upon you providing your bank details in a timely manner.

Disclaimers

Colours may vary slightly between on-screen images and real artworks due to monitor settings and lighting.
Every original piece is handmade; small variations and imperfections are part of its character.
Frames shown in images are for display purposes unless otherwise specified.

Copyright

All artworks, designs, product images, and written content in this shopfront are copyright of David Armes.
Works may not be copied, reproduced, or distributed without prior written permission.
Purchasing an artwork or print does not grant reproduction rights.

Data Protection

Customer data is stored securely and retained only as long as necessary. Your personal details will only be used to: