This post is about the induction to screenprinting for paper.
Screenprinting is a printing technique using a mesh that will let the ink go through only certain part of it. It is used widely since the 1960’s from underground concert poster to multi-millions advertising campaign, including famous museum pieces (Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein….).
We were introduced to the press, the mesh, and the ink.
The ink is made out of acrylic paint, so, being a water based paint, it dries quickly.
We learned how to make a screen, though I didn’t a lot of pictures. This is where we clean a screen to create another design.
Than, to create a new design, we use photo-sensible chemical to block some part of the mesh and avoid ink going though it. t is necessary to work in a dark room.
Over all, the instructors gave us a very detailed instruction book describing the whole process in detail.
‘’When you go to a museum you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionaires.’’
Banksy
In class about “Transnational Histories”, we were taught the “Elgin Marbles” controversy. It was the first time I was confronted to the problem and I wasn’t informed at all . My curiosity pushed me to look further into the issue and I went to see the famous marbles at the British museum. First: the object of the controversy : The marbles + a bit of history.
The “Elgin Marbles”, or as the British Museum Trustees prefer to call them, the “Parthenon sculptures” are composed of the decorative element of the Parthenon, the temple of Athena at Athens. This includes the metopes, the pediments sculpture and the frieze. The Temple was finished in 430 BC in Athens and symbolises the greatest achievement of human kind at the time. As time went by, the temple served multiple function (such as a church, or a mosque). Though, in1687, the temple was tuned into a gunpowder reserve during a war against the Venetians. An explosion destroyed the roof of the temple and it was left in ruins. During the late 17th century, the archaeologist Lord Elgin brought to England most pieces of the temple in order to protect them as fast as he could. Once in England, the marble where subject to a few scandals (cleaning methods revealing to be harmful to the marbles, etc.) and were considered as imperial spoils.
The controversy concerns the return of the sculptures to Greece. In 1983, Greece formally asked for the marbles to be returned, but the British Museum refused. At first the English government was involved but it detached itself, leaving the responsibilities of the marbles to the museum trustees. The UNESCO couldn’t intervene because the marbles are not propriety of the government. An agreement has to be found between the museums. The British Museum would agree on a change of location instead of ownership. Though, the ownership of the marbles is contested due to how they were acquired by Lord Elgin (he smuggled them to England with the help the Turkish administration at the time). The museum trustees denies this fact and claims that they should stay in England for better visibility.
This controversy asks a lot of questions about art. To who does it belong ? To a nation ? To mankind ? Where should it be ? Is the misplacement of art objects part of History of the world ? Or part of a nation’s pride ? Is it moral now to keep stolen goods ? At the time it felt justify to protect the marbles, but now that time had change, would it still be a good thing to keep them ? Would it be moral now ?
I went to see the marbles in the British Museum. They look drowned into an empty room. Now one was there to look at them. I couldn’t help but feel uneasy next to then. It was clear they did not belong here. There was pamphlet justifying their choice to keep the marbles, as if they had to and it was their duty to keep them. But the moral choice would be to bring them back, wouldn’t it ? It feels like an decadent memory of a past empire that can’t accept it’s grandeur has faded. The British museum has tons of other Greek statues, why do they want to keep these ones ? It seems absurd to me.
In a perfect world, all wonders would be returned, and we would all be able to see them. But this is not a perfect world.
This is a post about the induction to printmaking and especially: drypoint, etching, and linocut.
The instructor for the course introduced us to the press and the machine we would use to create or print. They show us different techniques, the presses, and the inking process. Some of these presses are older than 50 years old.
The instructor gave us material to work with so we could create and print our work the next day. I stayed true to myself and drew two monsters.
The next day, we inked our work and printed it.
Tada ! I tried different inking, and one of the print is what is called a ghost print (when you print a design one last time time without adding ink).
This last picture is the result of all the lino cuts of my group printed together.
Using our previous illustration, we had to work in pairs: we had to look at each others works and write a short story (one or two paragraphs) inspired by the illustration. After we had to illustrate this short story with 6 to 9 comic case. Once this was done, we would pin up the comics on the wall and try to find someone with a similar style to ours and create a poster mixing our drawings and theirs.
Work from my classmateStory written by my classmate
Same as the deconstruction lesson, we had to restructure an image following multiple steps. The goal was to literally illustrate someone else story with someone’s style. Though, being imposed a style was the most difficult part of the task, and it was tricky to create something of our own that would respect the other person’s style. It teaches you to try to think like the person who’s style it is and to understand their process of creation.
It was a radically different approach then the past lessons. It felt similar to a situation you could encounter during your professional life. It is often, if not mandatory to be able to understand how your client is thinking to be able to complete the gig they are hiring you for and satisfy their demand.
Work from one of my classmate.
I had to (again) Let go of my previous structure and work habit. It was this time more about the narrative. With a limited amount of cases, each one of them had to be a strong image or have a strong impact.
I built my poster like the back cover of a comic book. With text in the centre of the page and a scene surrounding it. We could imagine that the monsters around the text are the threat surrounding the city and now a whole story can be created around this idea. The black and whist aspect of the comic strip inspired me too to choose a comic book type of poster. I’m actually satisfied about how it look like.
In conclusion, it was a very good practice, and interesting way to approach illustration.
In this lecture we compared looking at the physical object/image and looking at a digital copy of the object/image. We also learned about the process of archiving documents. During the class, we were given documents from a collection. We had to examine the documents and to archive them. The documents where a series of educational and entertainment magazines from the collection from one of our teacher.
To archive the documents, we had to look through the magazine to find the information we needed. It wasn’t always clear what we were looking for. We had to find the common point across all the documents and determine what kind of collection they could belong to.
I was wondering the link between the collection and the collector. Why create a collection and what are they collecting?
In that case, the collection was entirely composed of British published comic books and magazines for kids. They were all starting from the beginning of the 20th century to now. Though the collection was composed by single issues, it seemed to be mainly education mixed with entertainment. The Collector has a PhD on the codification of British education in the late 19th and early 20th century. The magazines are from the same time period and later. The UAL website mentions also that the collector has published papers about multiples subjects including colonialist stereotypes in European comic books. This shows that the collection is part of a real passion the collector has.
The act of collecting and archiving is important none the less to keep a trace of human activities, discoveries or creations, and to advance in our own time, by being able to go back on what has already been done. Being able to hold a document from the past allows us to understand more about the humans before us. We can see the similarities between our society and the ones before us.
But also it seems that individual people collecting are often driven by sentimental attachment with the things they are collecting. It is often an emotional drive that motivates people to build a collection. As if they were seeking comfort in the possession of material objects.
Though physically holding a magazine that was published more than fifty years ago was an unique experience. With the ads and the content of the magazines, it was amusing to imagine who was reading this before.
References:
– UAL Website (2018) London College of Communication – People. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/london-college-of-communication/people/ian-horton
– Kathy Michelle Carbone (2017) Moving Records: Artistic Interventions and Activisms in the Archives, University of California
– Brien, Ciara, O’Connor, John, Russell-Carroll, Deborah (2018) ‘Meaningless carrying-on’: A psychoanalytically-oriented qualitative study of compulsive hoarding’, Psychoanalytic Psychology, Vol 35(2), Apr, 2018. pp. 270-279.
Workshop based on the 4 illustrations we did. Learning to make a new image from 4 existing images.
The first brief consisted in creating four illustrations inspired by brief encounters. In class, we had to analyse the four illustration from the first brief and deconstruct it.
We had to create new material based on our existing material, we had to reinvent/reinterpret our previous material. Each piece had to be rethink and analyse in its structure, content, composition, shapes or element. We had to take what was working in the previous illustration and mix it with elements from the others. It required to create distance with past work and find another perspective.
It was a positive experience to rethink and recreate the work. It helped to be open to new ways of approaching my work and help me be critical of it: I recognised what was working in the illustration, what wasn’t and what could I reuse. Though, if my work had a more sentimental value to me, I would have been afraid of showing it or thought I would destroy it.
Deconstructing requires to take apart you work, and so it allows you to understand more your work and to go deeper into its development. Though, it is tough to find a balance between the first draft, that might have a certain energy to it, and the new perspective you are bringing in the work.
As I approach an image now, I realise a smaller version of it and try to find different point of view or composition from the original idea. I also try to find what would be the best way to convey the emotion or the message I want to say. The first shape the illustration takes is not necessarily the best one and deconstructing the idea, then reconstructing it helps to develop the idea in a better way.
I stole the spider leg, the squirrel paws, even though you can barely see it, the colours from Miro’s library, and the composition of Inktober to create the image for this workshop.
This question was asked to us on the first week of the BA Illustration and Visual Media program. It opened a debate with the whole first year BA students. It was a very interesting start but this debate left me rather confused. I’ll have a lot to learn this year.
The entire IMV BA program was reunited in a room. More than 120 students in the same room (pretty oppressing setting already), and with one question: What is illustration?
They divided us into small groups to debate then we shared our answers. It was a long list of every form illustration could take, from traditional drawing in a book to abstract collage, including fabric printing, animation and so much more. It felt like everything could be considered to be an illustration.
But if everything is illustration, then nothing is?
It was more confusing than I expected. We were given a broad variety of artworks that were seen as illustration. But i wasn’t able to see the common link between all of them. I realised my definition of illustration was very limited compared to all the possibilities this art offered.
I tried to think about this question in another way: what is not illustration?
The etymology of the word comes from the latin ‘illustrare’ meaning to shine a light on. To illustrate seems to be defined by a goal rather than a specific media. I will do more research on this.
I realised with this class that I needed to be open to new ways of making my art and at the same not to lose my style and my personality. I have explore news techniques and experiment, and at the same time stay close to my personal obsessions/themes.
The brief consisted making 4 illustrations on the theme: brief encounters. We were supposed to find inspiration around us and to explore the area of Elephant and Castle and the school. It required to observe the environment, to be open to new ideas and to work fast. It was overall an interesting start.
On the first day of class, we were given a task: do four illustrations on the theme ‘Brief Encounters’. We had to find the encounters in different places: a free newspaper or magazine, the university library, real life around Elephant and Castle and from an online source. We may use any technique we wanted.
It seemed that the goal of this task was to teach each to be aware of our surroundings and to find inspiration with what was around us. Most of the encounters were random things happening or seen for a brief moment. For example, I surprised a conversation between two students around elephant and castle, or when in the subway, I was looking over someone shoulder while she were reading a newspaper that served as a base for my illustrations.
It was quite unusual to do, because I’m often in my own world, deep in my thought with headphones on. It forced me to leave my bubble and be attentive to what was happening around me. We can find inspiration from everything around us and it’s the ability to be observant that helps cultivate your thoughts and allows the creative process to start.
Though, I was very hesitant (and so lost a lot of time) to pick a subject because I always thought I could find something better. I was perpetually waiting for something more interesting to use, and felt my ideas were boring, but the time restraint forced me to just pick an idea and do it. It was one of the advantages of having a deadline. It forces me to stick to one idea and I stopped hesitating. Though I wish I did it earlier than the last day!
The short deadline was another challenge on top of coming with four finished illustration. It was a very short deadline to produce four finished pieces. There was no room for hesitation and we had to be efficient to deliver the final product.
It was good way to challenge myself (and even if it is not my best work at all) and to introduce us to the program.
