Material Immaterial, 2018-2020

Experimental Riso Publication, Performance and Exhibition Project, 2018-2022

Materiality and immateriality lie at the heart of the original idea behind photography; how to translate the three-dimensional world of material objects into a two-dimensional image purely through the agency of optics and chemistry. The material is also ingrained in photography as a craft. In this sense the inception of photography is also the start of a convoluted history of processes and methods: a history of materials, surfaces, substances and secret recipes. These two parallel strands – the photographic image as a representation of an object, and the photographic image as object itself, have been at the centre of my fascination with the medium. But it is perhaps the appropriation of photography by printmaking that really opened a new horizon for experimentation. I wanted to bring artists back to think about the photographic print as object, especially when working with images of objects. This publication is intended as a visual conversation between five artists, around the topic of the material and immaterial: Joshua Bilton, Hannah Hughes, Eugenia Ivanissevich, Tom Lovelace and Bärbel Praun.

The conversation started with a meeting, preceded by the following note:

“I’ve been keeping an eye out for artists working on the boundaries of photography and sculpture, questioning how these two universes intersect. I am really interested on how photography transforms the three-dimensional world into a flat world of ‘immaterial’ images, and how your artistic practices take these images back into the realm of the material.

And then there’s books and printmaking. I think the photographic image has become trapped in the x4 ink cmyk litho process, leaving a really interesting world aside. I think there are printmaking processes that are more akin to sculpture -such as etching and screen-print- as the different layers and transparencies demand one to think about a three-dimensional space instead of a flat halftone grid. I researched a lot over the last year, looking for a process that could bring the ease of printing of lithography with the potential for experimentation you would get from screen prints.

I have been looking into Risography, a process that works on the same principle of screen-prints. I am very excited with the quality and creative possibilities of this process and want to get a group of artists together to come into a workshop to develop an experimental publication. Sian Bonnell from Manchester Metropolitan University has kindly offered us to use their Risography printshop to come and experiment with a set of images.

I am thinking of the theme of the material-immaterial, and my idea would be to also record a conversation between the artists, which I’d transcribe and use as text for the publication.”

1. First Experiments

The process of printing this book entailed inviting each artist to print with me, working together and taking decisions during the printing process. Artist Sian Bonell invited us to print at Manchester Metropolitan University, in their RISO Print room. allowing us to experiment with their two-drum Riso. We also printed at the London Centre of Book Arts, on their faithful RISO 3700.

2. Material Immaterial Test Books at Cosmos Arles and Offprint Paris, 2018

Part of the experience of printing ‘Material Immaterial’ was using the same stack of paper to print tests as the Risograph printer loaded the rollers with ink. When we finished printing the images by the four invited artists, we all realised this stack of ‘test prints’ looked amazing and wanted to show our discoveries, as well as introduce our project. We came up with the idea of a ‘side-book’ called Material Immaterial Test Book, presenting a number of test prints that were fed randomly into the printer for the rollers to load up with ink. The result was a series of random ‘palimpsests’ of the images by the different artists. This byproduct of the printing process opens up exciting conversations on the materiality of images, and the creative posibilities of photography and printmaking.

For two days we set up a small binding table at Cosmos Books in Arles working with Tipi Bookshop and the Leboudoir 2.0, where Hannah, Bärbel, Sian and myself selected a series of tests, that where staple-bound into a 1/1 edition. On occasion of the Arles festival we released 20 test books, dated and signed on site. This was a brilliant way to introduce our ongoing project, and raise interest for the launch in November in Paris. Our next test book performance will be at Polycopies in November, followed by the launch of the final 5-artist publication in Paris and  London (at Seen Fifteen Gallery) end of 2018 / Start of 2019.

3. Material Immaterial and The State of Things, Landskrona, 2022

As part of ‘The State of Things’ a continuation of ‘Material Immaterial’ we were invited to show the publication and test books as part of the Book Market at Landskrona Photo Festival in 2022. Read more about the project here: The State of Things, 2020-2022