press.on Print Club Print Exchange #1

We are excited to announce the start of our new printmaking venture – press.on Print Club.

Deciding to celebrate our founding by holding an inaugural print exchange, we invited a small group of three expat SA artist/printmakers living in the UK and five artists from Drukbesig -

Johann’s previous printmaking group of Western Cape-based artists.

A print exchange is a formal swapping process where each participant submits a full print edition of one work, and then in return, receives back one print from all the other participants plus one of their own.

Each of our eight participants was called upon to make a small edition of 10 prints with one A/P, on paper size 27 x 32 cm in a landscape format, using any traditional printmaking medium. The theme was open as the idea was to allow each member to “introduce” themselves to each other via their own subject matter and way of working. All works were created this year (2023).

This was a huge success, resulting in an exciting suite of eight skillful and diverse prints, a welcome addition to each participant’s own collection!

This catalogue showcases each print alongside the artist’s statement. More of their work may be seen on our website.

Johann Booyens – Geometree I

Not deifying trees and the natural world – but still admiring the organic nature and resilience of these things – the contrast between mankind’s effort and the natural world is stark.

We measure trees by height and girth, age and species: a kind of mathematical rule. Nature, on the other hand, values opportunity and cooperation not concerned with the highest or biggest. The idea of measuring trees using math is, in a sense, a ridiculous notion. Nature follows a different rulebook. It is this misalignment of understanding of the way of the natural world that has proponents of climate catastrophes running for the hills. It would suit us better to study biology and animal husbandry, forestry and oceanography, life and death rather than extreme activist actions. Our response is ineffective as our knowledge is truncated.

Mandy Conidaris – Extending the olive branch: Tentative

In 2019 I started the series Extending the olive branch which is still in progress. Biblically, the idea of the olive branch stands for a peace offering and reconciliation, and in Greek mythology it stands for fidelity and wisdom. I use the symbol of the olive branch to represent the hope for peace and respectful compromise, my work intending to comment on the divisive nature of contemporary life ranging from the nature of our intimate relationships through to political and social conflicts.

In this print, the dynamic between the two branches is tentative - they are almost touching. Have they made brief contact or are they about to? Is the space between them uncertain or exploring, timid or cautious? Is the visually less dominant branch retreating or advancing?

Extending the olive branch: Tentative

Screenprint

Elize de Beer – Correspondence

This three-layered screenprint relates to my current body of work where I examine the meaning of archives and libraries and the visual signifiers they exhibit.

Here, I have used elements of archive filing systems and library date stamps. Our shared visual knowledge leads to our understanding that these timestamps belong to a book library check-out system. The work shows timestamps of the "correspondence“ - that is, how often the book has changed hands - and implies a shared connection with the information contained inside the book. I enjoy how this alludes to specific information without explicitly stating the nature of the information.

Laurel Holmes – The darkest night

Feeding both my creative practice and internal landscape, the immediate natural environs of the deep southern peninsula of the Western Cape where I live constantly provides my artwork references. In attempting to explore and transform emotional and physical experiences into a visual language through the act of artmaking, my works become a metaphor not only for this physical world, but also for the connectedness and mysticism that seems to exist in this place.

For this print, I wanted to see how far I could etch the plate before it broke down completely.

Once the breaking down started, with holes developing in the plate, the resulting printed image gave the feel of looking up through leaves to the night sky, hence the title: The darkest night. I hand-coloured some of the small white areas to indicate stars; and then, to ground the image, over-printed with a linocut depicting a sheer mountain side.

The darkest night

2023 Etching and linocut

Noeleen Kleve – Leave

The title of this little etching is a play on the word “leave”, as in leaving or being left behind, and also, the plural of “leaf”.

It indicates a transitional or liminal stage, where what existed before no longer exists, due to a state of departure. This could seemingly allude to the leaves falling from their secure attachment to the branch of the tree which is firmly rooted to the ground.

For me, the reality references my experience of detachment and loss due to the unexpected death and departure of my life partner, followed closely by my ‘maman’, my mother.

The leaves, which were the source of the soft-ground process, were collected in a distant land to which my son has also left and relocated.

Natasha Norman – Poolside Variations

This work is inspired by watery worlds and the memory of feeling submerged as one gazes at the reflective surface of a body of water. Poolside Variations was printed on washi paper using watercolour paint. The forms were hand carved in birch plywood and printed according to the ancient Japanese woodblock printing technique, Mokuhanga. Four passes of gradated colour create the tonal depth in the work which shimmers with the iridescent pigment used in the base layer. As the print is handled the colours shift in the light, enabling a metaphorical piece of mercurial water to rest on the paper.

Poolside Variations

2023 Mokuhanga Japanese Woodblock Print

Marelise van Wyk – Suspense

This etching started as an experiment with aquatint. I attempted to recreate the textures of the natural decay and erosion that I noticed on old plates in my studio. As I went further into the process, an imaginary landscape started to emerge. This reminded me of the dry, barren landscapes in South Africa, where life is weather-dependant and often uncertain.

A small hanging object – (printed from a rusty, found plate) was added to emphasise the sense of suspense I felt while creating the plate, never quite knowing what the result would be.

This suspended plate serves as a metaphor for our human experience - reminding us of the ambiguous moments we encounter, while we hang in suspense, unsure of what lies on the horizon. It encourages us to embrace the allure of the unknown, find comfort in the suspended state, and relish the joy of discovery without the pressure of immediate resolution.

Yolanda Warnich – Vestige

‘Vestige’ - a trace or remnant of something that is disappearing or no longer exists. As an artist, I am forever reimagining the landscape. My work is a response to the degradation of natural land and biodiversity loss due to the accelerated growth of the human population and expansion of building and industrial development. It serves to protect my specific visual memories of a rich environment by focusing on the social-ecological construct solastalgia. This is understood as the distress caused by the transformation and degradation of one’s home environment - generally being a place-based phenomenon - and defined as an integrated perspective of humans-in-nature and part of the interconnectedness between ecological systems and social systems.

For Vestige, I over-layered monotype techniques with frottage of existing lino and woodblock cuts depicting the landscape. I term this editioning method ‘freestyle’ since each layer is a copy of the previous in freehand, and so the prints vary. Here, I created a ‘freestyle edition’ of 10 works, reflecting my usual experimental and intuitive artmaking methods.

Print exchange organised by Mandy Conidaris.