#TPG 2021 - Curating project - The Printing Girls

The Printing Girls’ Annual Exhibition

OUR ANNUAL JOZI EXHIBITION

The Printing Girls (TPGs) is an informal group of South African female artists who work in the specialised medium of printmaking.

We are a dedicated professional community, collaborative in nature, offering each other support and technical help with a spirit of generosity. We are beginning to exhibit widely and are sparking interest on the local art scene.

What is an editioned original print?

When an artist makes a series of original prints, she creates a matrix - a surface that she has made marks on. Then, by applying ink to the surface of the matrix, she transfers the ink to the paper –this is sometimes called an impression.

By applying the ink and transferring it to the paper in the same way each time, she will create a number of near-identical impressions. Remember making potato prints as a child? It’s pretty much the same principle! Though a lot more technically sophisticated …

By limiting the number of impressions, she creates a limited edition of prints. Once that edition has been documented as such, she is not allowed to pull any more of these identical impressions from that matrix.

What is a monotype print?

Over several decades, as well as a medium to create editioned prints, printmaking has also become more experimental and spontaneous. A monotype is also an impression, but here it is a one-off impression.

Guest artist: Sophie Peters

proud to start

tradition of

Running Fires

We were fortunate enough to be introduced to Sophie by remote control via a TPG member Elzanne Louw who has given us info about Sophie on the following page. We feel so privileged that an artist of Sophie’s standing is happy to contribute a print to show in this exhibition!

Please read more about Sophie here: https://africaartworks.weebly.com/sophiepeters.html

and here: https://asai.co.za/artist/sophie-peters/

Born in 1968 in Johannesburg, Sophie Peters now lives and works in Manenberg, Cape Town. A diverse artist in her own right, Sophie has produced work in various mediums including linocut, painting, and sculpture. Her work has received acclaim at both national and international exhibitions, and when asked about her artistic influences she stated “ My work is an expression of myself. I am not really influenced by any one artist but only by my own particular experiences”. About this print, Running Fires, she says “The giant mountain was set on fire recently, blazing away its beauty and historic tracks and affecting nearby institutions. The nation is thankful for the brave and bold firefighters that worked tirelessly to save what was left. This was indeed an unfortunate situation, but we are grateful to God for conquering the blaze. With time we will be able to continue enjoying the breath-taking views the Giant offers. I created this artwork after witnessing the burning mountain, an event which laid heavily on my heart. I could not rest until I displayed it in linocut.”

Above info supplied by ElzanneLouw.

The #TPG 2021 is our annual exhibition, held now for the 3rd year running at The Art Room in Parkhurst, Johannesburg! This exhibition catalogue also shows the works of 52 TPG members along with their artists’ statements … An incredible variety of images and ways of thinking!

Allison Klein (Johannesburg)

My work seeks to respond to my immediate environment in a personal and socially conscious way. By exploring the female archetype and well known literary, female characters, I try to present an alternative modern narrative.

In these new mixed media pieces, my aim is to draw parallels between the themes in Bible stories about women and female sexuality, and continued attitudes towards women in our modern society. Partially concealed subtexts are implied by the visual elements in the compositions. The female figure in these works is intended to question the oppositional gaze of the voyeur. Is she the protagonist or the victim? Is she the temptress or the martyr? Women are seen not only as victims of random forces of violence or sexual harassment, but also as someone who invites her own fate.

Amy Jane van den Bergh (Pretoria)

I love being an illustrative printmaker. For a long time, I avoided accepting my tendency towards illustration, feeling that a path to illustration would lead to my work not being accepted, successful, or taken seriously in the artworld. But over the past few years, I have come to realise the power of illustration, that there is an important space for it.

Now I fully embrace my illustrative tendencies - being privileged enough to develop a fulltime art career, I have decided not to waste time fighting my instinct to make fun, playful, humourous illustrations. Here, the artwork ‘Floral Revolution’ is a rebellion against unspoken undercurrents that compromise the thinking of so many talented artists and defies my own fear of pursuing illustration. Consisting of 35 screenprinted layers, this ‘illustration’ is the most complex and challenging artwork I have ever attempted, in fact it is intended to celebrate illustration.

Andie Rodwell (Cape Town)

I have a deep affinity for animals and find them a compelling subject in my art, particularly in respect of their symbolism on a cultural or spiritual level. Through my current etchings I explore the interconnectivity between the natural world and science – how forms and patterns in nature can be modelled mathematically i.e., the Geometry of Nature. This theme is represented using geometric lines in my images, supported by torn pages from old science textbooks.

In certain cultures, the ram is a symbol of strength and humility, and in others courage. The curl of a ram’s horn reminds me of the curves and spirals evident in nature as a well as geometry. The Hare is known to be a symbol of rebirth and resurrection and is also associated with moon deities. In pagan traditions, seeing a hare gazing at the moon is believed to bring good fortune and abundance. The Aardvark is a solitary and elusive animal, and a symbol of stability and grounding, much admired in African Folklore because of its diligent quest for food and its fearless response to soldier ants.

with Chine Colle

with Chine Colle

with Chine Colle

Angelique Bougaard (Johannesburg)

Zoning into aspects of personal memory my artwork Fading explores the fragility of memory with the passing of time. I explore the waning image of my late sister and examine how her image distorts in my mind over time. The act of stitching becomes a cathartic encounter allowing me to piece together displaced memories. Emerging from a nostalgic space, the handmade quality of the paper, carefully stitched surfaces, and interplay between light and dark allows me to move into a contemplative and meditative space.

Fading

Ann Ludwig (Knysna, Eastern Cape)

I began printmaking a few years ago and loves its unpredictability, finding it the perfect vehicle to create quirky imagery. My ideas are inspired by a love of literature, theatre, art history, and nature. For a few years, I’ve been working on a series of prints inspired by R L Stevenson’s “ Travels with a Donkey”. The idea is for my main protagonists (a donkey, cat, and jester) to journey through episodes in literature, history, and place.

After a recent 5-month sojourn in the UK, I returned to South Africa and relocated to Knysna from my old home in Johannesburg. During this English midwinter and strict Covid lockdown, I longed for African blue skies, open spaces, and lush foliage. Although the theme of the donkey, cat and jester was still at the back of my mind, I changed focus to include imagery which resonated with this longing for Africa: lush vegetation and birds.

Africa in my veins

Ashton Dingle (East London)

This piece emerged from my deep love for the African bushveld, the steady strength of the elephant, and the curves and lines that can be drawn across the cartesian plane. If you look at the spaces between the elephant faces, you’ll notice that they are the exact shape of upside-down elephant faces. This is called a tessellating shape. As a child I was fascinated by Escher ’ s tessellations, but after completing a degree in Mathematics, creating art was the furthest thing from my mind. Little did I know that a few years later I’d be designing my own tessellations and bringing them to life with the medium of linocut. The characteristically definite edges of this medium, along with the stark contrast between light and dark which may be obtained in a monochrome print, become the perfect union for exploring tessellations.

Cinthia Sifa Mulanga (Johannesburg, born Congo DRC Lubumbashi)

To portray my exploration of the constructs of beauty, I use mixed media comprised of intaglio on relief printing, hand painting with acrylic colours, and collage on Fabriano paper. The processes of carving then inking, wiping and inking again on the surface, and cutting and pasting images are placed together as a combination of different references to points in history. The characteristic elements of the photographic lines, the graphic lines, and the painted lines each represent a different time and the way they influence us to either alter or enhance ourselves.

Claire Zinn (Johannesburg)

My main focus is the natural world which I interpret primarily through reduction linocuts. This intensely detailed work, Edge of the Sky I, captures an imagined landscape that seems both peaceful and chaotic. The figure contemplates the valley below while poised above, an entanglement of fig trees and ruins awaits.

Cloudia Rivett-Carnac (Johannesburg)

As an appreciator of nature, I spend as much time as I can outdoors whether it be in my own garden or further beyond the confines of the city itself. I yearn to leave the city behind and live within the solitude and calmness of nature. Lockdown in all its stages has definitely limited my capacity to fulfil these yearnings and settle the feeling of unrest I experience every day in the city. My usual weekly escape into nature by going hiking has become limited, so I spend time reminiscing about the opportunities I have had to lose myself in what really matters to me- the natural world. As Vincent van Gogh stated, “If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere”.

Donna Solovei (Cape Town)

My theme for this project has been inspired by the relationship of my grandparents in EnglandHarry who passed away many years ago, and Joan who is still smiling. I’ve created a few pieces that act as love letters to Joan, with love from Harry. They are fragments of memory, based on experiences, landscapes, and flowers that they would love. Capturing colour in enclosed organic shapes, like flashes of thoughts, established glimpses of memory. Mixed media and hand-printing techniques enabled me to redefine these ideas into abstracted landscapes or even dreamscapes. They become a mixture of realities and reflect the fragility of life.

Elizabeth Tristram (Pretoria)

My work explores symbolism in everyday objects, often in a tongue-in-cheek way. The Ornament, or vessel series is a collection of monotypes reflecting on the connection between the bias that society has about artists who choose to paint representationally, and the role of women as object and vessel.

Elize de Beer (Johannesburg)

I run my own collaborative bindery, Bookward Bound Bindery. My art practice is rooted in my dyslexia, which has caused my relationship with books and words to involve a fascination with them as objects.

"Worlds Within" is an ongoing series of abstract, varied edition prints, created using an aquatint alongside letraset and marbled chine collé. These prints are a step in bringing together my two worlds of bookbinding and printmaking. Marbling has a strong history within Western Bookbinding and has become my space to explore colour in ways I would have found difficult in traditional printmaking. With etching, I work with text not as bearers of information but rather as forms pulled together to create an abstract image. Aquatint allows me to work with letters and letraset in a unique way, creating clean blocked-out images that open up a realm of possibilities once the marbled chine collé is applied.

Elrie Joubert (Bloemfontein)

I’m an obsessive collector of miniature and natural objects. Ruins, remnants, remains, debris, destruction … in 2017 the Bloemfontein City Hall was burned down by vandals; in 2019, Notre Dame Cathedral was left in ruins after a fire; and in 2021 a vacated vagrant fire partially destroyed the University of Cape Town’s Jagger Library and other nearby historic buildings. All these tragedies have left me with a sense of sadness and the realisation that I will never be able to visit these places and experience them in the same way I once did. By combining images of the desolated ruins with objects that I’ve collected on these sites, I desperately try to etch my fading memories with what is left of these places.

(detail)

(detail)

Elzanne Louw (Cape Town)

way things seem to us, my most recent work, explores the concept of qualia, an idea summarised as a person’s individual subjective experience of an instance. In essence, qualia is the way things seem to us, and such a qualitative experience of the world is constructed by the unique inputs we can receive. As Elliot Eisner says, “to the carpenter the world is made of wood, and we learn to live within constraints. Diversifying those constraints is an important way to enrich your life”*. He describes our senses as “information pick-up systems, which allow

to experience the

world that

inhabit”*. This thinking has

Emma Willemse (Riebeek Kasteel, Western Cape)

Since the 1990’s the main focus of my work has been the notion of displacement and loss in a variety of mediums. Recently my interest shifted to the various losses occurring in these challenging times related to Covid-19. The seed of the ideas for the Viewfinder diaries was planted last year during lockdown when I used a cut-out template (a product from a previous work), as a viewfinder to detect visual relationships on my idea board in my studio. I collected a vast number of viewfinder images, which were photographed, arranged, and digitally manipulated into narrative formats. In each work in the series, four images are combined to tell a story, augmented by a text that I wrote – evoking a kind of diary of events of the year 2020. The cut-out viewfinder unwittingly resembles a facemask, which ironically, as implied in this series, becomes the viewer to our outside world, as well as the gateway to the personal and often painful experiences suggested by the text narrative.

Esther Simonis (Johannesburg)

I enjoy incorporating textures in my printing processes, and woodcut hand-printing presents extraordinary ‘sea-textures’ where the grain of wood provides the background texture to capture those glittering moments, and rice paper offers the sense of a ‘watery’ surface. Full Moon over Waters represents my love for the sea with its various shifts and movements

waiting for the full moon to reflect a golden path across the restless water … irregular waves and shiny reflections which create beautiful and glossy markings on this water body and present highlights if you just have the patience to wait! Oceanus Vivus (not exhibited) shows the teeming of life in relation to the diversity of organisms, yet also represents the diversity of personal life experiences.

For all my years my love for the sea was paramount. My final days of traveling, missionary work, and ventures were always spent in the sea and waves in many different countries. Primary also was my studying of the splendid variance of sea life.

Fiver Locker (Currently in the Netherlands on a barge …)

I’m a German artist, activist and traveller who has lived around the world, working on the premise that every culture looks strange to someone, that what we think is normal is entirely weird to someone else. My art practice involves observing, unravelling, and processing the complexities of humanitarian issues pertinent to specific contexts. Conscious of my own bias, my visual language is challenged and forced to adapt. Through this process of exchange and adaptation with various cultures, processes, my work finds meaning.

The Lost Lace project questions my background as a white European with its attendant privileges. Currently living in the Netherlands, I’m focused on the Dutch folks’ understanding of their history as a slave-trading nation as it influences national identity. German-educated post-war, I’m acutely aware that one’s national history involves responsibilities, not only to prevent future atrocities but to effect restitution.

I use multiple printing techniques, including linocut, etching, and found object printing. My images evolve through research and intuition over long periods of time

Genevieve Schwulst(Johannesburg)

I’ve become fascinated by John William Waterhouse’s painting Lamia, and what this mythical creature symbolises.

There are several beliefs around the Lamia figure. One is that she was a powerful being who sought revenge on those who had wronged her - this revenge usually took place in the dark, where she hunted her prey and then, through her eyes, opened a portal to transport her victims to an ’unknown’ plane. As a shapeshifter, her eyes were considered to be vessels which allowed her to see and hunt in the dark. She was also thought to possess the ability to temporarily remove her eyes to relieve her sleeplessness. In Greek mythology, Lamia was a goddess, a night-hunting spirit that preyed on men and children. In other myths she was endowed with the gift of prophecy.

For my interpretation of the story, I focus on Lamia’s eyes, using aquatint and hardground to achieve a rich, dark backdrop which serves to emphasise the idea of Lamia’s eyes as a portal to another mysterious plane.

Georgina Berens (Cape Town)

I’m most drawn to stone lithography. I appreciate lithography’s technical challenges, its tactile elements of stone, grease, and water, and how this ancient printmaking technique complements my contemporary passion for drawing. I use the sensitive mark-making qualities of line and tone specific to the lithographic technique to explore indefinable spaces and the sense of comfortable yet temporary dwellings to create an eerie awareness of light, shadow, and simply drawn objects.

In my recent drypoint print Nest, I explore the basket and it’s connection to a slow and simple way of life as a container for gathered bounty. The moth is symbolic of the change and transformation in all of us due to the pandemic.

Heidi Miekle (Johannesburg)

These two works form part of an ongoing and evolving body of work, Something’s fishy. This series consists of a variety of prints of different scales and printmaking techniques, with several themes and moods that vary from the melancholic to dry or cheerful humour. The work is a product of sifting through the noisy confusions of life in attempt to find peace in the silence. The Something Fishy series intends to provide multiple visual spaces to contemplate a vast sea of memories and experiences, to give life back to the bones of the ocean Eina 2021 and Oww 2021 are monotypes printed on recycled, old blueprints of a printing press. The blueprint paper offered me the soft sepia tone to complement my images of blue-green sea urchin-infested seascapes. The choice of using monotype (a one-off print) adds to the conceptual interpretation of the work as it speaks to the rarity and uniqueness of the invaluable creatures that live in the ocean. One cannot simply ’edition’ these ecosystems, so they should be protected and preserved at all costs.

Helen Lötter (Pretoria)

My background is in philosophy, which strongly influences the conceptual scope of my work. I’m interested in combining many different printmaking techniques in one artwork, enjoying the challenge of pushing the medium to limits not technically seen before. I also prefer working in large formats whenever possible. My work explores the concept of the preservation of knowledge, exploring this in a digitalhistorical context by referring to digital information storage methods that were used in the past, such as punched cards and punched tapes. My work is also inspired by objects such as vinyl records and magnetic discs, all data storage structures. Through these objects I use codes in the form of dots - embossed or printed - that can be deciphered by keys that I provide. My prints are like hermetic systems that deliver information through an input and output system based on codes.

José Vermeij (Pretoria)

CYCLE OF LIFE is a series that I started after picking up a piece of rusty iron from the ground on one of my hikes. It is the bottom of a vessel that was used to protect the contents from falling out - like the varying support structures we need in different stages of life.

OOIT portrays life’s first stage. Being vulnerable, you need a lot of support that almost surrounds you completely. Things will happen ‘ ever ’ . ONGEVEER represents the phase where you have moreor-less arrived at your destination. You have found a way to support yourself and don’t much assistance from others anymore. Instead, you can give support. RUST is the last stage when your world is becoming smaller again. There may be health issues and you need support from others once more. Living in a situation of rest. For this series I have used collograph and embossing to emphasise the idea of layering in my concept.

Kay Fourie (Philipstown, Great Karoo, Northern Cape)

The themes I explore involve questioning issues around the landscape and the meaning thereofhow do we use the land, how can we cultivate the same respect for land as had our predecessor hunter-gatherers, how did we obtain the land, to whom does land belong, and where are we going in terms of ecological preservation?

The landscape/land-thing in a hunter-gatherer sense does not exclude the wind, stars, clouds, sun, moon, or spirits of different kinds. If we stop to consider humankind’s achievements and failures up to now, it might not be a bad idea to tip our hats to our distant forebearers who possessed something that we do not: a deep knowledge around and respect for Mother Earth.

KeabetsweMakhooane (Klerksdorp, North West Province )

I’m currently working with the idea to interpret the Setswana saying ’ go nona pelo ka mathe’, the direct translation of which is ‘to fatten the heart with saliva’, meaning” to be patient'. One day I found myself waiting in a line in town, visibly frustrated, when a taxi marshal reminded me of the significance of patience and how we have all been forced to slow down. With these works, I wish to remind myself of a time that I was stuck indoors, peeking out through the blinds, thinking of how some had used the time to build, how I’m still impatient with myself, and that I truly wish 'heart fat’ were capsules I could buy at the pharmacy.

KelegobileMasilo (Johannesburg East)

Orchid Child: Certain flowers represent different personality types, and in child psychology, children who are shy or highly sensitive are labelled Orchid Children. Orchids are sensitive plants, not easy to maintain, and need special care and attention to thrive in their environment - as do highly sensitive people. Here I’ve created a fictional beautiful female character entangled in flowers and patterns that symbolise both elements of nature and her sensitivity to her surroundings. But despite this sensitivity, she is strong enough to carry her environment.

Kim Lee Loggenberg (Johannesburg)

Better luck next time represents a period of self-reflection in both my creative and personal life. Always straddling the line between knowing my own worth while simultaneously doubting it, I come to land somewhere in the middle. In a place that is filled with both disappointment and hope. This image is one in a series that plays with the idea of trying but failing. The vibrant, feminine colours and the naked and sultry figure suggest confidence, but the title implies failing or falling short - a constant tug of war that I often experience internally when creating.

Watercolour monotype allows me to play with bold colour while maintaining a delicate mark, and I enjoy its immediacy when printing and how it allows me to work with a freedom and flow.

Better

next

Kristen McClarty (Kommetjie, Western Cape)

This year I have focused on immersing myself in spaces that are special to me. Really feeling how it is to be there, concentrating on the light and sky and the clouds. This piece “A Monday evening in late summer ” is based on time I spent in the Cederberg earlier this year – a place of big skies and no contact with the outside world. I’ve made what is essentially a sky study, with that portion of the image dominating the print. The heat of the day has lifted the moisture in the clouds, billowing and swirling above me. It is the evening, and I am already in the shadow, but the sun still rests on the highest ridge surrounding the valley, turning the rocks golden. I have used the reduction technique, printing off a birch ply woodblock - my preferred medium at the momentand one that I will continue with.

Laurel Holmes (Kommetjie, Western Cape)

The idea of transience and change is so constant in our lives, and it seems that the rate of change requires incredible effort on our part to ‘keep up’.

I have always been drawn to stones and rocks, and now tidelines and the constant movement of water, literal but indicative markers of change, the ebb and flow of life and that nothing stays the same. All these are beautiful elements of nature that are in themselves constantly in flux, yet captivating and intricately detailed, yet representative of solidity/something to hold onto, of ‘home’ being where you ‘ are’, of the connectedness of humans to and within nature, and that nature is a deep, intrinsic anchoring that is necessary one to feel in balance.

Leonora Venter (Johannesburg)

As well as working as an artist and printmaker, I’m also an Urban Sketcher and keen photographer. I enjoy the technical challenges of printmaking and use several techniques to achieve intense line work combined with a range of tones and textures. During ‘Sketch-a-chicken’ week last year in June, Urban Sketchers were not able to go out and hunt down chickens to sketch as they normally would. To make up for this I created little drawings of chickens as they might have been depicted by certain Old Masters if they had been Urban Sketchers today. I became fascinated by both the military uniforms of the soldiers in Rembrandt van Rijn’s Nightwatch and my own depiction of animals in human guise. Switched from chickens to cats, this Classic Cats print series has used Renaissance portraits as a starting point for each work.

Arrogant

Bitchy

Lucy Stuart-Clark (Cape Town)

I work primarily in ceramics, collage, and printmaking, and particularly enjoy finding ways to combine all three disciplines. My ceramic and reduction lino pieces for this exhibition have been inspired by sketchbooks filled with my dreamy drawings during the months of Lockdown last year. Working through them a year later, I have been struck by how those small doodles carried the weight of so many thoughts and feelings from last year – watching nature reclaim urban spaces, living a solitary life quite happily, the unexplainable pain of losing loved ones and not being able to give and receive comfort in person.

linocut with monotype background

Lyn van Greunen (Malalane, Mpumalanga, Lowveld)

I love working with, and am inspired by, nature and my experiences across Africa so these feature strongly in my art.

Recently I’ve been inspired by the call of the Fiery-necked nightjar, also known as the Litany Bird, that we hear call every evening here in Malalane. There is nothing like it’s reassuring, familiar and distinctive call, in the African bush, from dusk and onwards through the night. All tucked up in a warm bed and listening to its call, one can only fall asleep feeling that everything is going to be okay. Even more so in the middle of a pandemic. A feeling of nostalgia and longing for one’s safe African home and a reminder of God’s love, mercy, grace, and peace.

LyreneKuhn-Botma (Bloemfontein)

My explorations in art involve the investigation of personal contemporary grief and bereavement, specifically the grassroots individual and collective iterations created and followed in mourning. For this exhibition, the works created explore impermanence and its illusive nature. Something impermanent, such as a shadow being cast, is ephemeral but its existence cannot be denied. The shadow is cast and suggests the presence of whatever is its source.

A shovel can both reveal and conceal, it can uncover and deliberately obscure. This nature of the shovel is coupled with an emptied bookshelf onto which a timeline is suggested. A timeline with a downward trajectory – a deterioration of being.

Ephemeral

Madelize van der Merwe (Cape Town)

As a child I was always fascinated by thick thorn trees, especially those found on my grandparents’ farm. Many times I got stuck in the thorns, my clothes ripped, and the tree ‘holding on’ to me. The print Holding On shows a circular, zoomed-in perspective of thorn. I have made use of the drypoint technique due to its ability to emphasise linework, strengthening the thorns crisscrossing over and among each other.

Holding

Mandie Immelman(Bloemfontein)

My interest lies in the unseen and unappreciated, especially as related to my environment, and I’m inspired by the terms Ambedo and Saudade which are associated with aspects of melancholy and longing. These terms link with my examination of the fauna and flora of South Africa and the lessons that can be learnt from them. The often-discarded subjects that I make use of are studied for their beauty and past lives.

Most of my works focus on both the similarities yet minute differences between species as part of an appreciation for the duty they serve in life. In these works, the way that individual bees are considered ‘anonymous’ is reminiscent of the way society treats those who carry the brunt of keeping a country alive.

Mandy Conidaris (Johannesburg)

For many years my creative work has dealt with different aspects of human relationships, and more recently I have used the symbol of the olive branch to represent the hope for peace and respectful compromise, from our most intimate relationships through to political negotiations …

During Covid I sold and moved away from my home, where I had planted three olive trees, each one to celebrate the birth of a granddaughter. My print work here combines the olive leaf with the Eco-longing concept, the floating sense of disconnection as I long for family and friends during this time of isolation. I have used watercolour monotype for its fragility and the way the image becomes gently imprinted and integrated with the paper, representing our new reality.

Marelise van Wyk (Cape Town)

I explore the close and continuous interaction between various elements in an artwork, between the artist and her art process, and also between the artwork and the viewer ’s experience of it. This interconnectivity allows for new and ongoing conversations, since from the same experience, different people will retain different memories, depending on their perceptions at the time.

To explore this interactive relationship, I created a series of small printing plates using different materials for the matrices. The imagery was derived from my usual sources. Each plate was printed multiple times using differing inking and wiping techniques, so the same plate created a series of different prints. To add further contrast I combine the small squares with monotypes from organic materials. While the artist manipulates art processes to create a specific outcome in an artwork, in return she is manipulated by what is happening in the artwork, which sparks new ideas and creations.

Mariette Momberg (Kommetjie, Western Cape)

Traces of plastic particles are polluting our entire planet from Artic snow to the deepest oceans. Recently, researchers have discovered traces in human organs and on both the maternal and foetal side of the placenta. It’s in the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air that we breathe.

Whilst not enough is known of the impact on our health, the urgent need to act is clear. I am passionate about the environment and feel that creatives should make a conscious effort to minimise their environmental impact, so I use water-based mediums in my artmaking and strive to maintain a low-toxic and environmentally considerate studio. Living so close to the ocean, the impact of plastic pollution is alarmingly clear to see. This body of work, predominately water-based monotypes, aims to raise awareness of the global catastrophe posed by micro and nano-plastics. Repurposing plastic waste collected from the beach and home were used to create these works.

Visceral

with watercolour & thread

Between the devil and the deep blue sea 2021

Water-based monotype

Lingering

Megan Shipman (Cape Town)

I’m intrigued by the technical processes of traditional printmaking, and the precision and attention to detail it requires. While maintaining these elements of printmaking, I enjoy exploring and searching for different materials and other artmaking techniques to combine harmoniously in my process. This artwork combines drypoint etching and the use of cotton thread to provide a range of texture, while at the same time creating a seamlessness with the paper. Although The businessman represents a symbol of boldness, confidence and power, the cotton and stitching juxtapose a sense of fragility and unravelling. This plays on the notion of first impressions or people’s outer projections, so often masking insecurities, lack of confidence, and inner turmoil. Within this contrast, my aim is to create a sense of harmony or balance between the two.

Natasha Norman (Cape Town)

My works seek to evoke a momentary encounter in the natural world as something sustaining to the viewer. A reflection of the Moon on a flowing stream, the wind blowing through Autumnal grasses, each moment is a pause, a sense of place suspended, before yielding to natural cyclical shifts.

Having travelled to Japan to study the woodblock medium Mokuhanga, my chosen techniques are Mokuhanga and Mokulitho. Both are processes where an image created on wood comes to reflect the natural wood grain of the medium in the final image. I love working with the natural textures of wood and always seek to create an image that responds to the existing grains in my chosen blocks.

Dancing

Moon Reflected on a Flowing Stream 2021

colle Mokulithoon washi paper

print

Neeske Alexander (Cape Town)

I explore my world through art, often working from life and experimenting with different techniques such as drawing, painting and printmaking. Themes in my work include nature, narrative, feminism, and public space which she unpacks in a nuanced and poetic way.

Currently I’m working on creating a new artwork each week. A familiar feeling - this is the place where I walk by myself.

Nellien Brewer (Pretoria)

Whilst studying art, I became interested in the complexity of natural systems. DNA is the longest word in existence, and my art explorations eventually led to my using digital text as a metaphor for this ‘design code’ inherent in every natural system. My signature art-making medium is digital text, which I love combining with traditional printing methods. The work on this exhibition are drypoint images from my ‘Flotsam and Jetsam’ series which was inspired by the bits and pieces along the high-water mark. Fragments of complexity - each unique and beautiful, yet simply discarded by the ocean. The images have been printed on scraps of found handmade paper.

Flotsam

Flotsam

Nicolette Geldenhuys (Kommetjie, Western Cape)

My recent works rely heavily on the inspiration I find in my immediate surrounds. Especially after this year of not having the freedom of experiencing Nature, I am trying to embrace the privilege of artistic expression by taking all these elements from my natural environment, elevating them to a “mystical landscape” where positive nostalgia (a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past), healing, joy and freedom is available. Nature becomes a person, and a communion of sorts is experienced. I hope the viewer is left with a sense of belonging, in a world where especially during the pandemic, loneliness is so prevalent.

Birds of a feather… 2021 Monotype with drypoint on washi paper

Nomvula Hoko (Johannesburg)

I felt I should use my baby as a metaphor. Multiple panels in progress patiently building up layers and layers. My art is loaded with metaphors and fused into a harmonious whole, some colours dominating the space while others recede like a whisper, quiet but instant. As human beings we have interacted with spiritual relationships not being aware they existed for us because of our complex system of the inner world and purpose in our life. This work in particular is about me becoming a new mother and having a connection with my son. The techniques I used on this prints were screenprint and linocut, templates from doctors about my baby’s health, and when was he born. The connection between me and him, it’s Spiritual.

Purnaa Dab (Johannesburg)

Through my art, I investigate identity through the dialectics of the Self and Society, and explore the interface between social, political, and personal. I try to reveal the way simple material pieces from human existence shape our identity. My works cross-pollinate between such banal elements of my personal sphere, and references from wider peripheries, like discourses around tradition, politics of identity, socio-political complexities, and nostalgia. My work process begins by researching everyday objects, their functionality, and their social and personal significance; then I construct these banalities with images, words, lines, and colours, stimulated by events and discourses taking place in larger society. Depending on the situation I depict, they become metaphors for comfort, tension, belonging, uneasiness. In my works, the emotions that memories evoke emerge as abstract vignettes, created with intricate details and lines, as well as with the native languages I come across in my daily routine as I seamlessly drift between the contrasting realities of Kolkata and Johannesburg.

Unloved

Renee Johannes (Johannesburg)

I experiment with symbols and subject matter that have manifestly female associations and extend these associations to the state of mind of women in society in a playful, feminist way. The tactile process of hand-making a print with unique lines and qualities appeals to me.

The recurring themes of transposition (transforming the old into new) and states of mind are present in this latest series of works titled the Madonna and Child. The reference and subject matter of this series originates in the work of Leonardo da Vinci and his numerous understudies for the Madonna and Child.

Roxy Kaczmarek (Johannesburg)

The Palm Procession series was created by imagining the man-made architectural subdivision of urban landscapes. Gardens are implanted into environments. They reflect the desire to bring nature closer to our homes and living spaces. They reflect imparting order or surrendering to natural chaos. From a distance across suburban Johannesburg one can see tall Palm trees poking up their heads and towering above these gardens - like sentinels. Driving through the city I observe these markers of spaces, all too often planted in rows. These works focus on the sensibilities and relationship between us and the natural world. Through loose brush strokes inspired by natures stillness and movement I explore the separation and closeness we humans have created."

Sanmarie Harms (Kroondal, North West Province)

In my ongoing work, I research the ongoing changes in the seemingly static seen and unseen world of rocks, rock-formations, outcrops, and hidden waterways. Fire and water play an important role in these events. For example, masses of fluids, usually water, go hand-in-hand with the fracturing processes. The printing marks in these works were inspired by actual marks on rockfaces, riverbeds, or rocky outcrops that I photographed as source imagery.

For Fractured and Shattered, the first layer of each print is a monotype run off with a printing ink that I made quite fluid to produce a watery effect on the paper. The second layer refers back to the nature of fractured rocks eroding and changing over time.

Still Intact is a collagraph with layered textures, forming an abstract image of earth-like sedimentations, fragile to change.

Fractured

Sarah Judge (Johannesburg)

My personal artmaking happens daily as I engage with Johannesburg, exploring unfamiliar spaces along with my daily travelled spaces, becoming more aware of my own surroundings. I’ve been experimental in collaborating with artists lately and wanted to experiment more in my personal practice. I last made an etching at varsity and thought it would challenge me to make another, rather than carving a relief print, my usual printmaking medium. This new series of images is based on photographs that I took a few years ago whilst driving in and out of Johannesburg’s CBD and they seem to have a sense of nostalgia and curiosity. The process brought excitement, nerves, and curiosity, but was challenging and enjoyable.

Influx

Reminiscence

Theona Truter (Mooinooi, North West Province)

The Jagger Reading Room (formerly the JW Jagger Library), where part of UCT’s Special Collections is housed, was completely gutted by a runaway wildfire on Sunday, 18 April 2021. The oldest book in the collection was by the Roman historian and moralist of the first century C.E., Valerius Maximus, entitled : Factorum ac dictorummemorabilium libri IX, and was published in Mainz by Peter Schöffer in 1471. The book title translates to: "Nine books of memorable deeds and sayings".

My ongoing artwork series is also titled Nine books of memorable deeds and sayings and will consist of 10 works: the first is an image of the Jagger Library and the following nine works will present nine books of the collection that were damaged or destroyed. Here, my first three works are shown.

Thuli Lubisi (Soweto, Johannesburg)

My theme focuses on exploring, celebrating, and embracing African heritage. I seek to eradicate borders by creating shapes which are a metaphor for landscapes that are free from tribalism, political and historical constraints. I use patterns that are referenced from objects and textiles which are associated with different cultural groups. The patterns don’t overshadow each other, suggesting cohesion. I’ve used the linocut technique, as carving resonates with the diligence process of making textile. The use of colour and detailing gives the image the resemblance of fabric

Xia Cweba (Johannesburg)

My art practice is an ongoing cross-examination of stereotypical ideology around black womanhood through cultural and traditional viewpoints intertwined with the gaze of harsh critical western standards. Within these works, I play on a duality of identity, the ability to fit in a traditional African narrative. This work in particular is about a spiritual journey and finding oneself.

Yolanda Warnich (Strand, Western Cape)

The experience of ecological grief has been described as a natural - though overlookedresponse to ecological loss, likely to affect even more of us moving into the future. It was described as “the grief felt in relation to experienced or anticipated ecological losses, including the loss of species, ecosystems, and meaningful landscapes due to acute or chronic environmental change.”

My ongoing art practice has revolved around using physical aspects of the environment for source material, and here I made frottages of patches of ground on fragile Washi paper (Japanese rice paper).

Traces

on Fabriano & Washi

Traces

on Fabriano & Washi

The end!