Art Articles & Reviews

} Infinite Proof - an Asian/North American Printmakers Collaboration By Nik Semenoff In late 2003, six printmakers met in Hong Kong to exchange ideas and methods of working. The collaboration was to be in three stages with the first being communication amongst the artists through e-mail and the internet. Each participant was to suggest a subject for all of us to produce an edition, using their preferred techniques. The second stage was to meet in Hong Kong at a participating institution and work with the other printmakers. Finally there was to be exhibitions of finished works to be held in galleries where the printmakers came from and other interested centers. Because it was difficult to find a suitable studio and interested organizations in Hong Kong within the timeframe originally planned for early 2003, the group did finally meet there from November to December 20th. The collaboration consisted of two artists from mainland China, one from Hong Kong, one from United States and two from Canada – as well as a Canadian student getting his masters in printmaking at a university in Ohio. The Hong Kong Institute of Education was the base for our collaboration with the printmakers given time to use the print studio when it was not needed for classes. Each participant agreed to teach the students a process or technique that might be of use to art teachers. I demonstrate my waterless litho process over a number of sessions; at other times I worked with the participating printmakers who were interested in waterless litho and safer/simpler intaglio methods. This experience has made me aware of problems that printers encounter when they try my methods in countries other than North America. Materials I take for granted were not available or very hard to find. Luckily I was able to find useable substitutes in most cases. When Jacob Semko (the student) was asked to go to mainland China to introduce waterless litho, he called to see what could be used in place of common paint thinner as it was not available locally. Luckily something close to what I call white gas was on hand, but he had to buff the plate surface very fast to get a proper surface. The HKIed staff were very helpful and gracious in dealing with all the printmakers. Mr. K.S. Ma was our campus contact who did much to make our visit comfortable and interesting. His wife Jane Lui was one of the participating printmakers who works in both lithography and intaglio. Her generosity and commitment to helping all of us to make the visit very pleasant; greatly impressed me. On December 7th and 14th, we also gave workshops to interested printmakers in the art community at the Visual Art Center located on Hong Kong Island - all workshops were well attended. I had an opportunity to meet a number of printmakers and visit a small but well equipped cooperative print studio maintained by eight dedicated artists. With the decline of manufacturing activities in Hong Kong, space for artists studios has become affordable as businesses vacate offices and trade shops. While still expensive by my standards, for some it was an opportunity to have a place to do their art. Living space is a premium in Hong Kong, which became apparent to me in the area where we stayed. It is considered to be the most heavily populated space in the world as the streets became congested with people much of the time. Spacious studios like we are accustomed to in North America must be a rarity. Jane Lui had published an academic exploration of the printmaking practices in mainland China, stressing work since the Second World War. I had a chance to see the original prints that were used in the book and was really impressed with their quality. While the printmakers did not always have rag or archival papers, they produced large sizes prints that would challenge the best of North American printmakers. Most were relief prints either in oil or waterbased media, with the north area of China preferring to work with oil based ink. Intaglio and lithography were not practiced to a great extent. As I recollect today, I was surprised with how much Western art had influenced their images. There was traditional Chinese imagery but art certainly had an international flavour. I discovered that many Hong Kong printmakers have studied at universities in North America, Australia and UK . Jin Boa Ping is a lithographer teaching at Xi’an university in mainland China. He loves to do images of horses as he considers them free spirits. Jane Liu teaches at Polytech University in Hong Kong, This is a traditional lithographic reversal technique. You can see the prints I did for the collaboration at my website. Go to “My Prints” in the menu section. ________________________________________________ Copyright © 2003 Nik Semenoff