SHARED GEOGRAPHIES
Mary and Zhang each make stunning woodblock prints and to commemorate the exchange they decided to make a collaborative print.
Zhang, whose work is about tradition and technology, used his handprint as a starting point. Mary, who deals with place and identity, began with a contour map.
Each artist carved and printed a block, using personal techniques and imagery but collaborated on content and aesthetic. Both Zhang and Mary were intensely interested in how the other worked, especially how different tools were used.
In China, where relief printmaking started, artists spend lifetimes perfecting a prescribed form while in the United States new techniques and combining unusual materials are critically rewarded.
Working together in Mary’s studio, they used an interpreter so that their dialogues about technique would be productive. Their collaboration revealed shared insights that resonate beyond geographical boundaries. This little print is a document and a celebration of that encounter. Its title-Shared Geographies.
Mary and Zhang each make stunning woodblock prints and to commemorate the exchange they decided to make a collaborative print.
Zhang, whose work is about tradition and technology, used his handprint as a starting point. Mary, who deals with place and identity, began with a contour map.
Each artist carved and printed a block, using personal techniques and imagery but collaborated on content and aesthetic. Both Zhang and Mary were intensely interested in how the other worked, especially how different tools were used.
In China, where relief printmaking started, artists spend lifetimes perfecting a prescribed form while in the United States new techniques and combining unusual materials are critically rewarded.
Working together in Mary’s studio, they used an interpreter so that their dialogues about technique would be productive. Their collaboration revealed shared insights that resonate beyond geographical boundaries. This little print is a document and a celebration of that encounter. Its title-Shared Geographies.