Over the weekend I visited the Crossing boundaries exhibition with another printmaker. It had some inspirational exhibits in it and was good to again visit an exhibition to get ideas about presentation styles and possibilities.
Some of the works that inspired me:
Crossing Boundaries at North Art, Northcote shopping centre a very aptly named print exhibition of Australian and kiwi print makers who push the traditional print of the wall. There were several works that caught my eye, as they were truly crossing the traditional boundaries of presenting printed works.
Botanics by Kathy Boyle (kiwi artist) this was a series of floating flowers, created from layers of printed paper with a central bead & plastic tubing curving stem and suspended from the ceiling. The work ‘felt’ delicate, ephemeral, had movement (both actual and visual), a muted colour scheme. This work was obvious, in that the flowers looked like flowers, but for me there was still lots of interest within it, these really were technical questions. Such as: the paper used, how did this stay curved? printing techniques used? how did she make the plastic tubing curved and stay that way? the holes appeared to have been burned into the paper, how did this not burn the whole piece?
Bathymetry by Helen Mueller (from Australia) this was a stack of 40 lino cut prints. Where each print had been slightly off set to the one below, so once stacked on 2 sides this gave a very nice angled line of white.
Repeated Marks Totems by Jacqueline Aust (kiwi printmaker) The simple use of large card board tubing as the canvas for works, which were suspended from the ceiling at times vertical and others at an angle. The angled tubes created a sense of tension which was interesting. There were in total 17 works in this exhibition.