The Print Exchanges workshop brought together researchers, activists, and archivists to learn the art of gelli printing while reflecting visually on a chosen site of post/extractivism using found and/or recycled materials, texts, and images from their own field of expertise. We considered extractivism broadly: explicit examples of mining or peat bog harvests, and as patterns of removal or sale of communal resources.
The workshop began with an introduction to tools, methods, and examples of gelli printing by mixed-media, Dublin-based artist, Sinéad Lawson. Participants each brought with them experiences of a local or a global site of extraction and monoprinted representations of their chosen sites in past, present, and/or future.
Gelli printing is a form of monoprinting that uses the gel plates, a light transportable and incredibly versatile printing tool that allows for experimentation using paper, acrylic paints, and everyday items such as leaves, string, and bubble wrap.
The project was lead by Drs Sarah Comyn and Katherine Fama, Assistant Professors in the School of English, Drama and Film who have been collaborating on a series of projects exploring site-specific creative-critical responses.
Reflective Prompts
During the workshop we introduced participants to the concept of ‘extractivism’, providing the following broad definition that draws on the work of Thea Riofrancos: Extractivisim is a very capacious topic. While extraction refers to removal, and not just through mining, extractivism implies more than just the removal of natural resources. It involves a culture of exploitation on a massive scale that reinforces the erosion of human and ecological rights.
We asked participants to consider:
- Urban extractivism – how extractivism is located in rural peripheries removed from urban centres
- Data extractivism – digital platforms; private date mining
- Financial extractivism – stock markets being one example
- Green extractivism – how ‘just’ Is the transition to renewable energy?
Participants were then asked to produce a series of prints using the printing techniques they had learnt from Sinéad Lawson in response to the following prompts:
Imagine your extractive site: it can be pre/post extractivism. Create an initial print layer from that
Now, imagine your site either after extractivism has taken place or a future that reimagines a post extractivist site. Add a print layer that reflects this ‘new’ version of the site. You may want to think about colour or texture here.
At the conclusion of the session we asked participants to consider the following prompts to further their exploration of gelli-printing that are adapted from Extracting Us Collective who in their exhibition, ‘Despite Extractivism’, ask us:
- How do communities and creatives cultivate care for nature and for each other despite extractivism?
- How can sites of extractivism be a fertile ground for alternatives
- How do artistic interventions help foster new sensibilities and solidarities with distanced extractive contexts?
- What artistic sensibilities and communities have we started to build in this workshop today?