Impact7, Day 1

Here is a quick summary of what happened on Day 1 of Impact7 conference in Melbourne.

One of the first highlights of my day was a chance meeting
with NZ Printmakers Fleur Williams and Jacqueline Aust,
even before the event had started it was great to make some new friends from NZ!

Mike Parr (AU), The Plague of Fantasies 1, 2010
unique state print on paper, 235x534cm

Mike Parr, The Golden Age, 2011
(Installation view)

The keynote speaker for the morning session was John Loane (AU),
who prints work for artist Mike Parr (AU).
The aspect I found most interesting was Parr's very spontaneous process –
his prints were mostly one-off very large printed ‘drawings’ made by all sorts of means,
 including marking the plate with an angle-grinder.
The works (as with the one illustrated above) can often be 2x5m!
Click here to see more works from Mike Parr.

Simon Kaan, Untitled Series 11-Oval I, 2011intaglio woodcut, paper size 89x21cm, edition of 12.

In the afternoon I went to check out the work of Kim Lowe and Simon Kaan’s prints 
which were featured in one of the hallways of the gallery area upstairs. 

Kim Lowe, Half-caste Kowhaiwhai II, 2010
embossed relief print, paper size 38x55cm, edition of 12.
Unfortunately I missed the session on ‘Convenientia’ by Chris White (NZ)
He was using philosopher Michel Foucault's concept of convenientia
 from The Order of things - An archaeology of human sciences (1970),
 to compare the processes employed in the making and printing of intaglio surfaces 
with that of landscape erosion geomorphology. 

Foucault's text defines convenientia as 
one thing assimilating the nature of another adjacent to it. 
In this adjacency each connects - their fringes intermingle. 
This concept is a good model for exploring the processes of intaglio, 
where impressions from eroded surfaces are imparted to paper 
through contact and pressure.


Another highlight was the random bunch of international strays from the conference 
that socialized over dinner by the Yarra River, talking printmaking and life. 

Several more NZ printmakers speaking today, 
so I’ll keep you informed over the next few days. 
I’m looking forward to meeting and hanging out with many more NZ Printmakers 
over the rest of the week.

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