8th Australian Print Symposium
10/05/2015
The professional development opportunity I attended was the 8th Australian Print Symposium: The Known World. This event was held at the National Gallery in Canberra between 01 – 03 May 2015.
I set off for Canberra to attend the 8th Australian Print Symposium – “The Known World” with a contingent of a half dozen others from Townsville expecting to be informed and inspired – I was not disappointed.
The three day program included national and international speakers reflecting the broad interests and key issues in the printmaking sector. There were seven plenary sessions of 24 keynote speakers and panel debates, sessions of papers and showcases exploring current ideas, research and practices. I also had the opportunity to view the National Contemporary’s gallery exhibition opening of Streetwise: contemporary print culture and view the National Gallery’s James Turrell: A restrospective exhibition. I attended the social program of conference, including the reception and the conference dinner which allowed me to further connect and network with colleagues and peers in the industry. The Symposium provided an opportunity to hear artists talking about their work in a very personal way and to network with others from around Australia and New Zealand.
The programme offered something for everyone but for me there were a few standouts:
- Hertha Kluge-Pott speaking passionately about her response to the wildness of the Australian landscape after a childhood in Germany where she thought all trees grew in rows. The artworks showed this passion and emotion through the use of texture and line.
- John Wolseley skipping across the stage while describing throwing fifty sheets of arches paper out into the bush to see what ended up on them over a few months or inking up and printing a found object such as a dead pelican.
- Clint Harvey talking about producing letterpress prints in his analogue studio which is so traditional that it has neither a website nor a phone but does have two rather ancient retired typographers on site. Next time I visit Brisbane – I will be looking up his studio!
- New Zealand artist Lonnie Hutchinson’s personal and unique approach to traditional stories and motifs. One of her large works is featured in the National Gallery collection and was so aweing to see in real life after her discussion of her artwork.
- Tooth and Nail – a printmaking studio in Adelaide is run by two young ambitious artists. Their model of operating as a print studio and gallery was quite comparable to Umbrella Studio and gave me some things to think about.
- Erica Seccombe showing the amazing results she had achieved by collaborating with the university’s science department using 3D micro-computed xray technology.
As a result, we have now organised a residency programme at the Gallery called AIR Townsville. The connections I was able to build during the Print Symposium has allowed me invite these people to take part in the residency programme and deliver workshops to our local artists, upskilling and developing their practices. We have also looked at using 3D printing technologies in tandem with printing practices and will be delivering a 3D printing course over 2016. On the last day of the Symposium, I also attended Megalo Print Studio. They had an open day where we were able to view all the studio spaces and samples of current artists using the space. As a developing studio space, I found useful tips and tricks in their studio set up and have since added some of these method to our own studio to increase safety and provide more facilities (such as a homemade etching hotplate). They are one of the leading benchmarks in studio practice and a great model to follow.
Angela Cheung – Gallery & Media Coordinator
