sgci board sponsored
international panel session H1
OUTSIDE THE COMFORT ZONE:
THE PRINT AS A FORM OF INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY
FRIDAY MARCH 20, 3:30-5:00PM
KNOXVILLE CONVENTION CENTER, BALLROOM ABC
Session Chair: Michael Kempson, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Email: m.kempson@unsw.edu.au
Printmaking activity abounds with diversity and distinction in all of our planet’s hemispheres. One of the greatest rewards for printmakers, who choose to travel and embrace what is different, is that the familiar can be experienced as if for the first time. To be in the position, through a change of context, where you are forced to lose sight of the comfort of what is known only to focus on the essential things. An international print engagement, in whatever form, requires trust in strangers and an open mind that can promote reflection and be a catalyst of change. This panel presents stories of international projects, workshops and research outcomes by individuals or communities, that reflect a global dialogue and interaction to demonstrate how the print, in its myriad of forms, affirms the value of establishing and sustaining ongoing connection.
Presenter 1: Jeffery Sippel, University of Missouri, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
Paper Title: 33 Years Spanning the Globe
What motivates a printmaker, comfortable in the confines of their own studio space and creative environment, to seek the challenges of the unknown? There are a myriad of reasons that inspire an interest in venturing off, with a sense of nervous anticipation, to pursue international projects that further dialogue and understanding. Sometimes it just happens because you are asked. Sippel’s 10 years as Education Director of Tamarind Institute, an organization well known for its mission to establish linkages with artists and institutions throughout the world, established the personal connections for what would become life-changing opportunities. This started with an invitation in 1981 from WP Eberhard Eggers to spend a year in Lamspringe, Germany. This presentation heralds the benefit of risk-taking, by offering selected stories of projects shared with artists and workshops from Germany, the former Soviet Union, South Africa, India, Poland, Bulgaria, Chile, Columbia, Venezuela, Finland, Mexico, Canada, Belgium and Argentina.
Presenter 2: Alicia Candiani, Proyecto’ace, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Paper Title: Self-Portraits Project: The Self and the Others
“Self-Portraits”is a global work-in-progress that Argentine artist Alicia Candiani has been developing since 2006, in collaboration with artists from all over the world. The project aims to explore mutable identities in a global world, vanishing the boundaries between individuals and geographical regions, emphasizing and addressing expanded printmaking practices. Today, it involves 93 artists from 11 citizenships, 6 countries, 8 academic sessions hosted by major art institutions, 5 languages, an international exhibition and almost 100 prints - in which multi-national artists have been addressing controversial issues, with a particular focus on an exploration of the self and its relationship with the other. It is a project with the potential to be continued with a new group of artists in a new place, as long as the participants are interested in investigating self-representation, extending their practice and furthering global dialogue.
Presenter 3: Chris Nowicki
Paper Title: Tlinget Prints: From Wood to Paper
The Northwest Coast Style of Native American art is a unique and highly developed visual practice that remains rooted in ancient tradition. As a prevailing art idiom, even contact with white men had absolutely no effect on its creative structure and it continues to endure as an integral part of contemporary Native culture. The work is defined by very precise compositional rules, and while some believe this to be a limitation, there is actually a vast amount of room for creativity. The stylized images of bears, ravens, eagles, whales and other totem animals display the respect and understanding of nature that permeates the Northwest Coast Culture and the relationship of the artist to their natural environment. This presentation will address the complicated structure of Northwest Coast two-dimensional designs, the artist’s relationship to their land and the dynamic of working within this community.
Presenter 4: Carolyn M. Muskat, Muskat Studios, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Paper Title: Printmaking Adventures in Vietnam
In 2010, Boston based Carolyn M. Muskat was invited to Hanoi, Vietnam to assist with the establishment of the newly created Center for Graphic Excellence and to teach a lithography workshop to professional artists. Invited by the Indochina Arts Partnership’s Director Dave Thomas, she was warned that it would be printmaking “by the seat of your pants”! It was. It was also the start of a journey that has continued through two more trips to Hanoi, countless visits to artists’ studios, more print workshops and exchanges of methods and information, exhibitions and incredible friendships. It has expanded to include hosting two Vietnamese artists in her studio on their first trip to the US, and an invitation to participate in an international arts workshop/residency in Malaysia followed by a fourth trip to Hanoi. The print workshops have become touchstones for enduring relationships with not just artists, but also with shopkeepers, business people, and families.
