Basel

Edition Basel residency

I’ve just completed a virtual artists residency with Edition Basel in Switzerland. I was in California, and worked on mokuhanga prints, and then we all got together on zoom every evening from all over the world and discussed what we’d been doing.

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We collectively chose the theme of ‘Übergang’ for our residency, a German word meaning transition/change/boundary. I made a series of prints of the view from the balcony, looking at the dusk/sunset/twilight skies. And then made them into accordian-fold artists books, that show a different view depending on which angle you view them from.

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This weekend a show is being held at the Basler Papiermuhle in Basel, with everyone’s work, either in person, or on screens for those of us participating from abroad. I managed to send in some of my flat prints, but also showed the finished folded pieces on a screen.

It was lovely to meet so many new printmakers, and take part in some lively conversations over the course of the week.

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These are some of the experimental prints I made, using 4 blocks and a variety of colours…

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I haven’t really tried to use the whole paper like this for a very long time, and I had fun inking up the blocks in random painterly ways, and not worrying about making exact editions!

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I set up a low table for the residency and spent the whole week here, carving, designing, printing, cutting and glueing…

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I spent the first day of the residency seeing if I could design, carve and print all in one day - turns out I can! I made this small series of bird prints, that can be viewed from any way up.

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One day I hope I’ll be able to visit Basel and the amazing Druckwerk printstudio in person…