Diversity is the character of the Calgary/Japan Printmakers Special Exhibition at the University of Calgary’s Dean of Fine Arts and Theatre Galleries. This diversity is expressed not only in terms of style and inspiration, but in the scope of techniques and execution. Works were selected by Professor Hideki Kimura of Kyoto City University of the Arts from over twelve established arts university and polytechnical institutions throughout Japan, and by Professor William “Bill” Laing from the University of Calgary, from the university’s printmaking department, Alberta College of Art + Design, Alberta Printmakers Society and Burnt Toast Studios.
The exhibition includes everything from woodblock and water-based ink prints to the most modern cast-resin assemblages and digitally enhanced photographic manipulations combined with printmaking techniques.
Cultural Distinctions between Japanese and Canadian Art
Surprisingly, cultural differences were not the primary expression of the show’s diversity. These cultural differences were blatant with certain pieces, however, and primarily with images that represent or reveal attitudes toward the female. (Works may be viewed in the accompanying gallery of photos):
- Tokyo University graduate, Watanabe Mako’s lithograph, “Candy*Girls” draws on Japan’s heavily fetishized pop cultural depiction of femininity as cloying, cutesy and infantilized, oxymorons of calculated innocence and aggressive passivity. The high-gloss surface, candy colours and gold-paper embossment makes this work a deliberate testimonial, evoking the commercialized market forces driving this archetype and the sense of mass production, conformity, quality control and greeting card sentimentality.
- By contrast, Tohoku University graduate, Fukudo Hiroko’s 2009 Etching and Aquatint “Hyakki Hokage Sugata”, depicts the folk-story image of a female demon as a very natural woman from the waist up, and a strangling, crawling snake from the waist down. The finely articulated detail and linework of etching are of the sort that one found in late 19th and early 20th-century book illustrations, and this media knits the subject of the print to tradition and history, where Japanese folklore is famous for these human / nature spirit chimaera.
- From Calgary, Burnt Toast Studio’s Jason Fuerstenburg signed in on these culturally marked representations of the feminine which the powerful monotype “I Made Brooke Cry.” Laing commented on Fuerstenburg’s strength with drawing techniques. The print has an expressionistic, early modern quality.
- At least one piece — a set of etchings, aquatints and silkscreenings that are the centre of a graphic poem-novel by Marigold Santos (University of Calgary, BFA) called “Goodbye Seven Sisters” — evolved into a process-based multi-disciplinary installation. The exhibition includes a musical CD recording she composed and produced to accompany the book. The females in Santos’ graphic novel have a similar child-like sense as Mako’s, but are more akin to fairy tales and not necessarily because of their direct link to a narrative. They are more elemental and less commercialized, and provide an interesting contrast.
Meeting of Minds and Talents
The process of organizing this Print Exhibition began at least a decade ago. Laing and Kimura developed a collegial rapport after meeting each other at various international biennale and exhibitions, and agreed that the two countries would benefit from stronger artistic interchange.
“Japan has a long and storied tradition of printmaking. They’ve been making prints for centuries,” Bill Laing began. “Whereas in western Canada, our printmaking schools are relative newcomers. Prior to the 1970’s, an artist couldn’t even get a graduate degree unless they left for the States or Europe. I came out in the late 70s just to help start up the printmaking department at Alberta College of Art and Design. It wasn’t until the late 1980s that an artist could receive more than an undergraduate degree in art in Alberta. I think this show reveals that our students stand equally with the best in the world.”
This special exhibition will be on until April 30th, 2010, at The Dean of Fine Arts Gallery and The University Theatre in Craigie Hall at the University of Calgary. Read about the works which were able to be shown because of the broader functionality of these venues in Japan-Calgary Print Exchange Exhibition Challenges by Simone Keiran.
Simone Keiran - Simone Keiran’s book A Brief History of Western Sculpture, Quantum Books, was released at the 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair. Her articles ...
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