Matthew Egan, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA
matthewjegan@gmail.com
Mark Hosford, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
mark.hosford@vanderbilt.edu
Heather Muise, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA
heathermuise@gmail.com
Martin Noll, Independent Artist, Berlin, Germany
nollmartin@freenet.de
Collaborative Project:"Demographics"
We are working on a multi-authored collaboarative print project at Druckwerkstatt, Kulturwerk of bbk berlins during the week prior to the IMPACT 4 conference. Through this project we will use the various facilities in the workshop (lithography, intaglio, screenprint, relief and digital prints). As Canadian, German and United States citizens, the project will offer a tangible example of international exchange and "kontakt" between a group of international artists. Prior to our working session, we will share images over the internet and projuce some of our printing elements and transparencies. We will exhibit a group of prints from our project in the main hallway at the Druckerwerkstatt Bethanien during the week of the conference (September 5-7) and will be present working in the studios on Monday September 5th during workshop open house from 10:00-15:30.
Arrangements have been made with Mathias Mrowka, Assistant Director at the Druckwerkstatt, Kulturwerk of bbk berlins to provide studio access for this project.
Mathias Mrowka, Assistant Director at the Druckwerkstatt, Kulturwerk of bbk berlins
Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin-Kreuzberg
Phone: +49-030-614-015-70
Fax: +49.30.61 40 15 74
Office Email: druckwerkstatt@bbk-kulturwerk.de
Email: mathias.m.mrowka@web.de
Project Statement:
This cross-cultural experience within printmaking will challenge each individual’s perception of their identity. Discovering and creating a visual language through reference points and relationships is the motivation. Though we share similar experiences, our minds and past histories twist our vision into one that is unique and personal. Art is the ability to see the world in a way, which is unique to a particular person, which is challenged through the notion of a collaborative. By synthesizing multiple views into a composition, and by working in a serial manner, previously unforeseen connections and relationships with imagery and symbolism can be explored and generated. The compositions will represent one moment in time, successively leading to the next. The meaning that is adopted by generating work becomes a world of its own based on the world in which we live.
The conscious practice of working through a problem embraces both intention and chance. Despite the initial intent, reactions to the properties of the materials, processes and to the other collaborators will define the image. At times, this process will reveal a plausible conjunction between the subjects, generating a formal, visual, and contextual relationship. The subject may be chosen by an intuitive reaction to a subject or object, the composition will be built to stimulate the connotations that become evident through this process.
By the mixing of rationality and unconsciousness, through compiling of a set of symbols in ever-changing ways, generates new dialogues, viewpoints and considerations. The editions will create images with consideration to the evolution of the image as it transitions through the hands and minds of the collaborators. Each part of the compositions will carry a history of its own, and be used within the collaboration to reproduce a new generation. Through a natural and fluid process, each person will play the role of the initiator and contributor.
Project Timeline:
August 30-September 4th: Working in the studios at Druckwerkstatt, Kulturwerk of bbk berlins
September 4: Hang work in the hallway at the Druckwerkstatt
September 5: Open house from 10:00-15:30
September 6: project is completed.
Participating Artists:
Matthew J. Egan
Assistant Professor of Printmaking
East Carolina University
School of Art
Jenkins Fine Arts Building
Greenville, NC 27858 USA
Telephone: 1-252-328-6563
Email: megan@ausharjah.edu
MATTHEW J. EGAN was born in Canada, and recently taught printmaking for several years in the United Arab Emirates where he was an Assistant Professor of Foundations and Design at American University of Sharjah, This Fall he has started a tenure-track position at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA. He earned a M.F.A. in Printmaking and Drawing from the University of South Dakota and a B.F.A in Printmaking and Multi Media from the University of Windsor. One of his main areas of interest and research is forging opportunities and links between Eastern and Western image-making traditions and practices through an attempt to identify with cultural and social issues relating to both individual nations and the wider narratives of the eastern and western hemispheres. Recent projects that support his notion of eastern and western relationships include participating in the “Re-Interpreting the Middle East” portfolio exhibited at the Corcoran School of Art and sitting on the accompanying panel at Southern Graphics this year. “The Fertile Crescent Portfolio” was an initial attempt to bring Arab printmakers together, and has been shown in the U.S.A, the U.A.E, Lebanon and Pakistan. He is deeply committed to fostering exchanges between artists through print exchanges, initiating a visiting artist program at the American University of Sharjah, and conducting visiting artist workshops himself, most recently at the Emirates Cultural Center, Vanderbilt University and the University of South Dakota. In his most recent solo exhibitions, “Implication of Representational Forms” demonstrated large scale prints and dimensional paper casts exemplifying Arab icons within a western image composition, and recent prints exhibited at Frogman’s Gallery introduced the first of a series of four color lithographic narrative book pages.
Mark Hosford
Assistant Professor
Vanderbilt University
101 Fine Arts Bldg.
2301 West End Ave.
Nashville, TN 37203
Telephone: 615-322-4330
Web: www.sugarboypress.com
Email: mark.hosford@vanderbilt.edu
MARK HOSFORD was born in Kansas City. He moved to Lawrence, Kansas in 1993 to pursue a BFA in Studio Arts at the University of Kansas. In 1998 he moved to Knoxville, Tennessee as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. After receiving his MFA in 2001, Mark accepted a teaching position at Vanderbilt University in Nashville Tennessee, where he currently resides. Mark is currently a Vice-President for the Southern Graphics Council. Specializing in Printmaking, Drawing and Digital works, his art uses narrative imagery to reveal societal wonders and blunders as well as personal investigations. He is represented by Peligro Gallery in New Orleans as well as Cumberland Gallery in Nashville. Visit his website (www.sugarboypress.com) to learn more about his work as the self-appointed Director of the International Dogfood Museum as well as his other projects.
Heather Muise
Instructor
East Carolina University
School of Art
Jenkins Fine Arts Building
Greenville, NC 27858 USA
Telephone: 1-252-328-6563
Email: heather.muise@zu.ac.ae
HEATHER MUISE received her B.F.A. from the University of Windsor, Canada, and her M.F.A in studio art (printmaking) from the University of Tennessee. Her work has been exhibited in over 80 shows across four continents. She has been teaching printmaking and foundations courses at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates for the past five years where one of her main areas of research is creating bridges between Arab and Western artists and cultures through the printmaking media. She has recently moved to Greenville, North Carolina with her partner Matthew Egan. Her work has been exhibited across North America, in Europe, the Middle East and Australia.
Martin Noll,
Independent Artist
Fichtestrasse 3, 10967
Berlin, Germany
Telephone: +49-30-2558-3923,
Mobile: +49-0176-211-30-317
Web: www.martin-noll.de
Email: info@martin-noll.de
MARTIN NOLL moved to Berlin to study fine art in 1980. This is the only career he ever had imagined pursuing. After one year of preparation he was admitted at the art academy, which offered only few, sought-after places for fine art students. He engaged in studying classical reproduction media (lithography, etching, relief printing) and started to investigate the new possibilities of digital image editing. As he considered classical reproduction to be too technical and the new digital media not yet well-engineered enough for his purposes, he turned to conceptional art during his later studies. In the mid-nineties he discovered transfer-print, which offered the opportunity to combine Senefelder’s classical lithograph technique with digital image editing. Transfer-print (the lithograph technique) is a technique to reveal the very essence of the reproduction process: perceiving something and recording it in a particular form, from which identical copies can be drawn. For him, employing reproduction techniques in his artwork is the adequate response to a world, which is both defined by and saturated with reproduction. Today Noll continues to live and work as an independent artist in Berlin. His work is presented in numerous public and private galleries.