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The Fine Line between Pleasure and Pain

Article released: Tuesday, 05 October, 2004

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A Fine Line is the graduating exhibition of Third Year printmakers, completing the Bachelor of Fine Arts at The College of Fine Arts, UNSW, 2004. Thirty six works on paper articulate the talents of graduating students Leigh Davenport, Georgia Neeson, Kerrie Oliver, Jennifer Orchard, Joshua Parry and Lisa Stuart.

Printmaking as an art form is currently experiencing a resurge of interest, both from artists and from the public. In an art scene dominated by Cultural Theory and Conceptual Art, printmaking processes tread a fine line between the pleasure that can be derived from the creation of meaningful art and the painstaking craftsmanship required to realise it.

It is impossible to create artwork in the demanding mediums of printmaking without a thorough understanding of the technical skills implicit in the terms woodcut, linocut, acid etching, drypoint, engraving, silk screen, lithography and collagraph. A block of wood or lino may be gouged repeatedly before success or a metal etching plate may be aquatinted, scraped, burnished, and bitten (in the acid) many times before it produces an image pleasing to the artist. Balancing the subtle demands of grease and water with stone lithography can be a challenge to the very best and the multiple layerings of a cumulative medium like screenprinting offer satisfaction unparalleled when the final colour is printed.

Each medium has its joys to offer to those willing to make the journey.

It is arguably difficult to achieve in any other medium the satisfaction gained from the simplicity of a deeply etched line, the density of a black aquatint or the richness of a flat colour transferred onto fine archival printing paper. The ideal of a perfectly worked surface is the balance between controlled mark making and the unexpected pleasure of the accidents of the process.

These 36 works use the full range of traditional and new printmaking techniques, and demonstrate multiple plate imagery, intensely personal themes, and the fine line between arcane, skills based knowledge and cutting edge creative innovation.

Exhibition dates: Tuesday 5th October - Friday 8th October 2004.

Opening Night: 7th October, 5.30 - 8.00pm

Guest Speaker: Anne Ryan, Assistant Curator of Prints, Drawings and Watercolours, AGNSW.

Opening night entertainment: singer Nicky Crayson with a line-up of Sydney's finest jazz musicians: Hamish Stuart, Jonathan Zwartz, Bill Risby (special guests will be Reg Mombassa & Peter O'Doherty from Dog Trumpet)

Thanks to generous Sponsors: The Artscene, West Ryde; and Strata Engineering, Boolaroo and Peterson House, Pokolbin.

Location: COFA Exhibition/Performance Spaces, EG01 & EG03 (Ground Floor E Block)
College of Fine Arts, The University of New South Wales,  Corner Oxford Street & Greens Road, Paddington  2021
Tel: 9385 0797