Language of Gestures
As part of IMPACT 9 International printmaking Conference in Hangzhou, China 'The Language of Gestures', a print collaboration with Sarah Jane Lawton was presented as an opportunity for participants to make and contribute to an evolving printed scroll in SANSHANG Art Gallery from September 22nd until October 3rd. The exhibit intended to confront one person with another, connecting individuals without the use of verbal language but simply through woodblock, indigo and paper. The exhibition explored change, impermanence, unity, vulnerability, collaboration and process, with an intention to record the transient moments of shared experience through printmaking. By inviting observers to become participants in an immersive experience, our hope was to explore and develop a 'Language of Gestures' though a continually changing and growing print.
Fleeting moments recorded through both printmaking and drawing, become a memento of experience. The choreography of traced movements, mannerisms and sounds contributed to a developing vocabulary of printable marks; a way of connecting observer to participator. The woodcut printing blocks, with which visitors were invited to adopt as tools, are inspired by gesture, movement, memory and language. This participatory exhibition is in-keeping with, and informed by, artisanal daily rituals, connecting people to each other and to their environment. This event was an invitation to notate human movements, as they were made, through a unique printmaking collaboration in this 'post-print age'.
The 'Language of Gestures' project was presented at SGCI in Portland, Oregon in March 2016.