Hybrid Practices within Printmaking

On 24 April 2015 Chelsea College of Arts will host the symposium Hybrid Practices within Printmaking, led by CCW Professor Paul Coldwell. The symposium will explore a range of approaches to printmaking in which ideas and intentions are allied to process and technique, resulting in what can best be described as hybrid practices. Current practice draws upon a rich history of printmaking both in terms of technique and the means through which images, as vehicles for ideas, are distributed. With the advent of digital technologies, the opportunities for artists to combine processes and approaches has never been greater.

Annette and Caroline Kierulf work as independent artists within a joint project focused on social engagement using relief print as one aspect of production. Jo Love addresses issues of materiality and the relationship between the digital and physical, while Ellen Heck combines drypoint and woodcut to explore notions of identity. And finally, Christian R melin, will discuss the monumental woodcuts of Christiane Baumgartner and her approach to technology.

Coldwell said, ‘My role is to introduce the key themes and chair the closing discussion. The symposium has developed over a period of time from a perception that artists, and in particular printmakers, are increasingly combining processes, revisiting older technologies and exploiting the opportunities, particularly in terms of scale, that digital print offers. The artists featured in the symposium all engage with current debates and see printmaking as a means to explore ideas and issues.

I got to know the work of Annette and Caroline Kierulf when I was invited to write an essay on their work for a publication produced by Dublett in Norway. They work both in partnership with a common set of aims and objectives, while also producing their own work that addresses ideas such as politics, ecology, self sufficiency and global economy, all through relief printing. I felt this was a very exciting approach, and since they both teach at Bergen Academy of Fine Art and Design it seemed a great starting point for a collaborative symposium, which I hope will lead to further cooperation.

Jo Love, who recently completed her PhD at UAL and is Pathway Leader for MA Printmaking at Camberwell, develops her large scale inkjet prints to explore dust, materiality and time passing. This has much in common with Christiane Baumgartner, the latest recipient of the prestigious Prix de Gravure Mario Avati and the subject of Christian R melin’s talk. Christian curated her recent exhibition and is an authority on her work. And finally Ellen Heck who lives and works in Chicago, and whose work was awarded the main prize at the Northern Print Biennial, will be presenting. Her series Forty Fridas explores identity and the female image through delicately worked intaglio prints of her friends dressed as Frida Kahlo. Ellen will be presenting a film of herself and her work, as she will not be at the symposium in person.

There will be a book stall to accompany the day with publications by the speakers available as well as work by students. The intention is to publish all the papers from the symposium as a special issue of the Journal of Visual Art Practice.’ The symposium is presented by CCW Graduate School in association with Bergen Academy of Art and Design.

Book your tickets here.

Banqueting Hall, Chelsea College of Arts, 16 John Islip St, SW1P4JU

10am ' 4pm, Friday 24 April 2015

Image credit: Annette Kierulf. Biotop. 2012. Woodcut.

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