Introducing ‘Her Prints’
The Exhibition Her Prints at Koppel Project Central, Poland Street, London exhibited 22 unique risograph prints produced by a group of 12 highly talented early-career female contemporary artists. The prints play with materiality and the everyday, transforming objects into a colourful collage which questions the fabric of life.
4x Questions with the Curator Kate Neave:
1. Why did emerge as a unifying medium for this show? What quality do you think makes it a suitable process ?
Risograph printing uses rich vibrant colours and has a particular warmth to it. It’s imperfect and a bit unpredictable but that gives the prints a hand-made charm which I love. It’s also a very flexible printing method, you can input an image digitally or place objects directly onto the scanning bed. Its flexibility gave me the opportunity to invite a range of artists to participate whose work in diverse mediums is not necessarily naturally suited to printmaking.
2. Why is this an all-female project?
I’m passionate about supporting early-career female artists and designed Her Prints as a way to support and encourage their practices. I’m continually surprised and saddened by the inequalities that still exist in the contemporary art world and wanted to take some positive action. I felt that a women-only project would help bring visibility and support to female artists. The idea of the project is that the artists receive training in a new area, can push their practice and also receive support from sales of the prints.
3. What was your biggest surprise during the project ?
The biggest surprise was the huge range of creative approaches that really pushed the risograph printer to its limits. The artist Hannah Rowan for example, works in her wider practice with a range of materials to create interconnecting systems exploring connections between geological processes and technology-driven frenetic activity of humans. To create one of her prints she put some ice directly onto the scanning bed of the printer to capture it melting. The print is called ‘Splitting, Calving, Melting’ and it’s absolutely stunning!
4. Where do you hope ‘Her Prints’ to develop next ?
In July we are collaborating with the brilliant Assembly Point gallery in Peckham. We will be a part of their EveryThing show which is a beautifully curated exhibition of editions from artists they have worked with and invited guests like ourselves. There will also be future iterations of Her Prints with new artists. Follow us at @her_prints or sign up to the mailing list on our website to be the first to hear about new editions and exhibitions.
Interviews with artists to follow.
Find out more at: www.herprints.com
