The Printer's Grey : alchemy, ritual and performance in fine art printmaking

Peter Zhang, in writing on the work of Deleuze and Guatarri, identifies what he calls Deleuzian minor rhetoric 1: namely the need to step outside of the major language and occupy the position of minority. This position of minority, which for Deleuze is a position of power, is achieved through the process of becoming, a constant state of mobility. In a sense this is one of the motivations for my project - understanding the language of printmaking I find myself invested in by considering the material qualities of printmaking as well as the process or act of printing through a number of visual forms. In order better to understand my own position within printmaking, I have used this project to explore the figure or persona of the printmaker and in doing so I am journeying towards the Deleuzian position of minority by questioning ways of thinking about print and the printmaker. This project is located within the fine arts practice of printmaking, but positions itself as an investigation of the liminal, in-between processes of printmaking in terms of alchemy and ritual through the figure of the printmaker. The project is everything in-between the initial idea for a print and the final product, a space I have come to refer to as The Printer's Grey. This reflects my own art-making methodology and my particular approach and thinking within printmaking, where my notebooks and proofs hold the same importance as the eventual printed product. These objects all reveal a creative process, which is flexible and shifting rather than one that merely renders an image in printed form. In drawing attention to the in-between processes during the act of making I assert both its instrumental role in the creation of the print as well as the importance of the process as a site of thinking through the visual. Specifically in relation to printmaking, The Printer's Grey speaks to and seeks to draw into the gallery space aspects of the in-studio process of making a print - aspects which often remain hidden when viewing a print.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Michaelis School of Fine Art

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Van der Merwe, Darren

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Inggs , Stephen
• Langerman, Fritha

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14093

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14093