Now What? Prints and the Human Condition _Saturday, March 13_10:30–12:00 (eastern us)_
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is another siren call of the exacerbating global crises: climate change, systemic racial injustices, wealth disparity, and more. A heightened sense of mortality that plagued printmakers like Francisco Goya and Käthe Kollwitz returns to the forefront of our minds. This session broadly addresses the human condition and the following questions: How can we adopt new ethical principles to move us forward? What is the role of the artist? Can art make a difference? Examples include Rak’s use of printmaking as impression management to examine “passing,” Miller’s exploration of inequalities women face in Turkey, Purugganan’s advocacy for human rights in the Philippines, and finally Shankar’s study on feminist artists such as Ana Mendieta, Chitra Ganesh, Rachita Taneja, and the Guerrilla Girls.
Danqi Cai, Panel Chair
MFA student, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Danqi Cai (b. 1996, Nanchang, China) received her BFA in Printmaking and Humanistic Studies from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2019. She is currently an MFA student in Printmaking at the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK). Cai has shown nationally in juried exhibitions at venues including the Alper Initiative for Washington Art (DC), Bradbury Art Museum (AR), International Print Center New York (NYC), and the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art (VA). She received the Muskat Studios Prize from The Boston Printmakers 2019 North American Print Biennial and the Best in Show award from the 2018 Four Rivers Print Biennial. Her work has been supported by artist residencies including the Chautauqua School of Art and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. In 2020, she presented at the SECAC conference and was elected as a 2020–2022 Student Member-at-Large for the Mid-American Print Council. www.danqicai.com
Ben Rak PhD student, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
"Impression Management: Performing the Printed Self." My paper explores the nature of passing and its shadow, the “sincere” and “authentic” selves, in social life and art practice. Passing is defined as “a cultural performance, whereby one member of a defined social group masquerades as another in order to enjoy the privileges afforded to the dominant group”. Through a series of practice-based experiments, I use the print as a medium to examine mutable identities and their agency, investigating how the material language of the print can be combined to mask or reveal its own identity. I argue that in essence, a print is an impression, and the act of making a print is entirely dependent on managing the transfer of the impression. As such, printmaking can be considered a form of impression management, a term used by sociologist Erving Goffman to describe the way in which we perform ourselves in social situations. The making of prints constitutes impression management both literally and metaphorically. Consequently, the print is well situated to act as a tool for examining the social phenomenon of passing—a subset of the performed self. This examination will contribute to a better understanding of the ontology of the print as well as the social and psychological experience of passing in daily life, thus providing an original way of understanding the commonalities between art and lived experience.
An artist, educator, and independent curator, Ben Rak was born in California, in the United States, and grew up in Israel. He is presently working and living in Sydney, Australia. Rak holds an MFA (2013) from the University of New South Wales. Rak has also curated touring exhibitions themed around the use of print process as metaphor, as well as exchange exhibitions with institutions such as The School of The Art institute of Chicage (USA) and Indus Valley School of Art & Design (Pakistan). Rak is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of New South Wales, where he is examining the phenomenon of “passing” as a condition in both social life and art practice. He is interested in the capacity for the print to act as metaphor for contested identities and the agency afforded to the print when it passes as another medium. www.benrak.com.au
Dilara Miller BFA student, University of Colorado, Boulder
"Inherited Trauma." I attempt to bring a voice to young Turkish women and those that exist in a place between belonging and opposing. Oftentimes the land we have experienced our upbringings on is non-neutral. The histories of our surroundings and our families have translated onto us, and its once clear images have now have left imprints on our lives. Through local traditions, I attempt to uncover the roots of the precautions women take within the Eastern Anatolian region. Within my symbolic explorations, I search through what it means to be a woman within an Islamic surrounding. By sharing my experiences of living in the country, I hope to start a conversation on the social inequalities women face within Turkey. I am half Turkish and half American and I am interested in how the precautions and expectations of women can vary between cultures and the lands they were raised within.
Dilara Miller is a BFA printmaking candidate at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and is also pursuing a certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language. Dilara is a Turkish/American artist that is based between Mersin, Turkey, and Colorado, Boulder. Her work is a symbolic documentation of her familial history, regional traditions, as well as the societal/cultural pressures of being a woman in Turkey. She weaves through the stories of her Mothers, Grandmothers, and her own histories to decipher the residues that her region holds. Her work attempts to pull apart the strands of the surrounding culture, history, and society to understand her presence within her environment. www.dilaramiller.com
Lyra Purugganan BFA student, The Ohio State University
"Remote Advocacy for Human Rights in the Phillippines." I have always been interested in the role of art in activism. Since I am an immigrant, queer artist of color, my art is politicized whether or not I intend it to be. Rather than working against this, I have embraced this idea. My art is political, now what?
In the year 2020, my home country, the Philippines, has descended further into fascism with the passing of the Anti-Terror Bill by President Duterte. This allowed the Filipino government to red-tag any person or organization, both within the country and outside of the country, they deemed a threat to the Philippines. As a result, activists in the Philippines have been red-tagged, arrested, censored, and killed. Freedom of speech is stripped from Filipino citizens living in fear.
As an artist and an activist living outside of the Philippines, I am privileged enough to be able to speak for those who have limited free speech and share these instances with as many people as I can. Most recently, I have been making woodcut prints on banana leaves. Banana leaves are used during Filipino feasts as a means to eat communally. These leaves are not archival and decay, representing the disintegrating freedoms Filipino citizens face during this regime. Additionally, my struggles as a Filipino- American are intertwined with the struggles of Black people in the US. I have organized print sales for organizations benefiting activist bail funds during the Black Lives Matter protests.
Lyra Purugganan is a multi-disciplinary artist based out of Columbus, Ohio. Pursuing a BFA in printmaking at The Ohio State University, Purugganan utilizes traditional printmaking techniques such as stone lithography, relief, intaglio, and silkscreen to explore cultural identity. Purugganan has been part of scholarship exhibitions at Hopkins Hall Gallery and featured in The Lantern. lyrapurugganan.wixsite.com
Shruti Shankar BFA student, Denison University
"Rest and Resistance: Navigating Patience & Politics in Print." As an artist, existing and engaging with the world, how do I deal with urgency when making, particularly in relation to issues of social justice? This question is brought to the forefront of my mind in a capitalistic society as the need to rest is often overwhelmed by the need to produce, to work, to survive and feels especially relevant in the current time.
As a printmaker, it sits closer still, because the medium of print has been a form of protest around the world. Print does this well because it is often accessible, distributes information quickly and can create a sense of community. The power of print lies also in its ability to think across borders and create futuristic visions. The purpose of visual culture has been to disrupt dominant narratives – to actively seek out the invisible and the marginalized. When responding to current personal and political moments, art allows us to dream beyond oppressive systems, subvert cultural norms, and build inclusive spaces. This is important to remember as we live through a time of continual censorship of different forms of dissent.
I believe that there is no one answer in how to approach this idea of political urgency as it relates to the human condition, but can be sure that art makes a difference. My proposal seeks to address how, by looking to feminist artists like Ana Mendieta, Chitra Ganesh, Rachita Taneja, and the Guerrilla Girls. These artists honor a range of time signatures in their practices, working across slow waves and quick responses, as well as across multiple disciplines. Moving forward, I need to look to such artists in order for myself and my work to exist, to take the time to absorb and respond to a swiftly shifting outer world, and to draw from lived experience because the personal is political.
Shruti Shankar (b. Chennai, India) is an undergraduate senior at Denison University. She is a candidate for the BFA in Studio Art and holds a minor in Art History & Visual Culture. She has taken studio courses in drawing, printing, ceramics, fibers, photography and animation. She is a Teaching Assistant in Printmaking, Ceramics and Art History. Her independent practice incorporates multi-disciplinary modes of working, investigating practices of looking, belonging, connections to home, memory and identity.She has participated in a number of shows within Denison. Her work has also been included in group shows at Stonewall, Columbus and EMU – School of Art & Design. Shruti is a two-time recipient of the Summer Scholars Program for research in Studio Art. She was awarded the Vail Scholarship and the Osborne Scholarship in Fine Arts and the Nan Nowik Memorial Award for Artistic Expression. She presented as an undergraduate speaker at the 2020 MAPC Remote Symposium.