Jennifer Bowes, Denise Hawrysio... Surface Tension

Jennifer Bowes, Denise Hawrysio, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Niall McClelland & Joyce Wieland

Malaspina Printmakers is pleased to present Surface Tension, an exhibition of works generated through indexical printing methods. The works included in the exhibition demonstrate a formal economy of process and form; whether labour intensive or deliberately performative to the extent of seeming immediate.

Each artist in the exhibition manipulates or alters the surface of various objects and materials through subtle gestures and actions. These marked and altered surfaces are used as a matrix for making the printed image. The prints remain as traces of an interaction with a material surface; marks recorded through evocative acts ranging from violence, to tenderness and devotion.

As images that make us acutely aware of the process of their making, the formal qualities and structure of the prints are inherently tied to the material from which the print is generated. The resulting image is more than just a culmination of marks; instead it carries with it the qualities and attitudes with which the materials were altered.

Jennifer Bowes (British Columbia) makes collograph plates that are constructed by repetitively winding and tying small units of materials until they form a densely woven surface from which she is able to print a near-photographic impression of the textured mass of material.

Denise Hawrysio (London, U.K.) uses intaglio plates to record the markings of processes and the traces of being in and moving through the world. In addition to printing her plates she reconstructs the sculpture used to generate the print after the plates have been printed.

Jessica Jackson Hutchins (Portland) was recently featured in the 2010 Whitney Biennial. She presents a new print of the surface of a dining table marked and used as an element in one of her sculptures.

Niall McClelland (Toronto) creates large-scale abstract prints that employ architectural or found objects as stencils.

Joyce Wieland (Toronto) created her seminal print “Oh Canada” by pressing her lipstick-coated lips onto a lithography stone while singing the national anthem.