STATEMENT

And So They Print came out of an impulse to research, interpret, understand and fold the roles, impacts, and innovations of women printmakers. This impulse seeks to challenge and re-read the canonical history of printmaking by highlighting the often overlooked contributions of women who print. Seven artists each selected one artist working with print whose practice they have been researching. They each will ask conceptual and material questions that arise between their practices — all while contextualizing their own positionality alongside their chosen artist. And So They Print also frames printmaking practices as collaborative and community-based. The participating group of women artists begin to create a network of conversations and connections between their chosen artists, as well as each other. Stemming from the embodied research on their chosen artists, the seven artists will engage in Instagram takeovers, posts, livestream demonstrations and workshops through the Hatch’s various forms of social media and website. Finally, a collaborative screen printed zine will be produced and distributed. And So They Print does not finish at the end of the exhibition schedule. This project is intended to extend into the future, and act as an ongoing body of research which will culminate into final works.

Which artists had we never heard of? Who was never mentioned in formal art education? Who is left out of the canonical history of print? How does awareness of other women artists and their practices influence one’s position to their own identities, methods and perceptions of what printmaking can be?

By negotiating with these questions, And So They Print becomes an act of research-creation, collaboration, sharing and (un)learning.