Emma McLellan is a staff member from MIT and is also a print maker. Her inspirations vary, from interior wallpaper designers, deformed hybrid animals and taxidermy displays. I wasn't there for the screen printing module for semester 1. But from what I've heard and seen, it is quick but also timely, making the actual print layer apparently doesn't take too long, but there is a lot of thought and preparation that goes into it. The process again, is something I'm unfamiliar with. But what makes Emma's work different is the fact that she also paints on these prints, or between layers. Screen printing is apparently good at getting on lots of different surfaces. Over the past ten years, Emma has been working on wooden panels and paper. She also keeps visual diaries handy and collects patterned wallpaper and fabrics with the possibility of maybe using these in her future works, by combining them with images of old paintings which she has appropriated. I see her interest in certain patterns relate closely to the clothing and decorative qualities of the Victorian/renaissance era. I like how she has incorporated the two by adding the pattern to the subject's clothing. It's something I've thought about before, because that's what I think of when I see those designs as well. I just haven't seen this plan in action until now. The rest of her works that look at the manipulation of animals are also quite interestng, the wallpaper patterns fused with the silhouettes of different animals were like optical illusions, it took me a while to tell the difference between the negative space and where the subject began.
Xavier Meade is a Mexican artist who also works in screen printing. Not only did his collection of posters come from his interest in the Cuban/Mexican revolution, I see he also had a passion for working with people from his native homeland, the poster series that came to Te Tuhi Gallery was put together by 12 artists, all from New Zealand, Mexico and Cuba. He also exhibited in all three countries.He also talked about the struggles that some of the artists faced in South America, how they had to improvise during the screen printing process because they had limited resources. Some even went as far as taking the glass window from one of their doors in order to make the print. It was inspiring to see that even though they come from a country that is behind in the latest technology they make do with what they have and are still able to produce decent posters. Xavier talked about how in Mexico, literacy is still a problem, so the storytelling with their posters have more to do with the images than the text. I think by doing this, the viewer doesn't lose focus of the cultural context, if anything it makes people think more in order to decode the meaning of the image.
"Santisima Virgen de la Barrikadas" by Xavier Meade
(You can see Xavier carries on this tradition in his own work.)
The closest I have gotten to printmaking in my own work was the very basic kind where you don't rely on the help of computers, or silkscreens. Wooden boards are used and the image is etched into it back to front with the details reversed. The results with this kind of printing however doesn't give you the result you were hoping for, the layer of ink rolled onto it may be even but you can't guarantee that all of the ink will transfer to your chosen surface. Aquatint printing would be similar to what I am talking about.
David Hockney is also a print maker, he used the aquatint method for his "Blue Guitar" series. Aquatint is a kind of printing process where the end result has a watercolour effect. From what I have seen, it starts out with a copper plate with an image etched into it. The artist will then cover this plate with acrylics or powdered resins that have been dissolved in methylated spirits and then take the plate through a small rolling machine covering the wet surface with the material they want the print on.
"Figure with Still Life" by David Hockney, 1976/77 (Etching and aquatint)
"What is this Picasso" by David Hockney, 1976/77 (Etching and aquatint)
Links
Xavier Meade
Aquatint print making process
David Hockney
Thanks Rose, some good commentary on the lectures themselves and further thoughts about the printing process. I would have liked you to develop the conversation either in the realm of the decorative (as in Emma's work) or politics (as in Xavier's), but you have chosen to talk more about the process of printing, which is interesting too.
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