'Language of Gestures' at IMPACT 9 International Printmaking Conference, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou,China, September 2015.
As part of IMPACT 9 printmaking Conference in Hangzhou, China this Autumn, 'The Language of Gestures', a print collaboration between myself and Sarah Jane Lawton was presented as an opportunity for participants to make and contribute to an evolving printed scroll in the Sanshang gallery space. The event 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, the hope was to explore and develop a 'Language of Gestures' though a continually changing and ever-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 this 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.
The exhibition opened on September 22nd and ran until October 3rd 2015. The Language of Gestures project will tour to SGCI in Portland, Oregon in Spring 2016. .