8 in 8: ReEnvisioning Print
May 19th - July 30th 2021
Nandini Chirimar
Michele Godwin
Rie Hasegawa
Shervone Neckles
Minna Resnick
Catherine Stack
Adreinne Waheed
Taehee Whang
Curated by Jazmine Catasús and Ann deVere
EFA presents 8 in 8: ReEnvisioning Print, a curatorial project by Womxn Who Print*. This exhibition features works in print media by eight artists associated with the EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (RBPMW), Nandini Chirimar, Michele Godwin, Rie Hasegawa, Shervone Neckles, Minna Resnick, Catherine Stack, Adreinne Waheed, and Taehee Whang. Within their eight practices, these living artists make work reflective of our times that is fluid and multidisciplinary in approach, language, and research. They epitomize the printshop’s founder, Bob Blackburn’s vision in pushing the limits of what it means to print, embracing and not in spite of its reproductive qualities.
8 in 8 spotlights a wide range of technical, formal and conceptual practices that incorporate drawing, textile, objects, installation and video. Focusing not only on technical expertise, these works reveal various stages of the creative process in the artists’ studio practice. Each artist has a distinct and interdisciplinary approach combining traditional methods of print with various media and presentation strategies. They reflect on a range of issues that include gender, migration, waste, ancestral history and race in their experimentation with and development of printmaking’s potential.
“Womxn see a lot of red in their lives, through birth, in menstruation, and in the symbolism found in Indian marriage”. In Nandini Chirimar’s vermillion hues exist an array of images infused with the artist’s cultural traditions, identity, memories and globalization. The social signifiers in her objects begs the question of what defines who we are. Her prints, works on paper and thread based pieces utilize line both formally and as an autobiographical gesture. Lines of emotion and threads of relationships ultimately find their way into the intricate delicacy of her mixed media assemblages.
In her artistic practice, Michele Godwin oscillates between two and three dimensional work employing textile, print, and ceramics. The consistency in line never wavers whether carved, etched, fired or sewn. Flowers and leaves intertwine throughout much of her imagery and surfaces emphasizing her innate desire to connect to the earth as an “urban person” growing up in NYC. Her visual storytelling incorporates the people, objects and natural forms she encounters in this duality of existing amongst trees and concrete.
Rie Hasegawa’s works on paper gives us a glimpse into how an artist’s multimedia practice overlaps with their lifestyle. Working with toxic materials in printmaking triggered a conflict of interest when she no longer wished to separate life from the artform. This led to using acidless techniques, such as drypoint and collagraph. Consumer waste, like single use plastics and coffee filters became the base material for her work. Her images bear witness to the chaos in the world, where the journey of the process holds more pleasure for the artist than the final destination.
Pushing narrative boundaries, Shervone Neckles stories into the world, cultural landscapes often marked by our American society as forgotten and abandoned. Informed by the reality of our times and her own lived experiences as an Afro-Grenadian American, her imagination is not hijacked by false truths. Within her interdisciplinary research-based practice, legacy manifests as acts of restoration and preservation. Her social investigations memorialize heritage through a process of archiving that debunks stereotypes and creates historical artifacts. For both the artist and her audience, hidden lineage is made visible and learning is had.
The figures in Minna Resnick’s work appear distant, isolated and displaced. The recurring vintage toile wallpaper motifs begins a conversation in the romanticizing of domestication. She uses humour to confront this senseless socialization in the “duplicity of being a woman in a man’s world”. By combining the repetitive nature of printmaking with iterations of drawing, it enables her to change context with different experiences and simultaneous realities. The work encapsulates the frustration, disappointment, and anger of an introvert trained by society to be nice when society is not being nice back.
In a continuous lineage of collective female voices, Catherine Stack centers her work in the familial traditions of her foremothers. She challenges formal concepts by emulating patterns to translate crafted keepsakes into printed form and sculpture. Her craft records objects as she wants them seen and celebrated in the strongest, most provocative way. These objects examine the intersection of tactility, memory, nostalgia, and relationships in an embodiment of soul and self.
Adreinne Waheed’s photography practice spans decades anchored in “holding space for the beauty, brilliance and resilience of black folks.” It is a vital love submerged in placing stories front and center that challenge our country's fraudulent grand narratives. She builds imagery with collage, photographs and print as critical, honest living documents. They bring together all the elements that give voice to a history of harsh inequities and erasure of those who sacrificed for her. Passionate and determined, her visual interrogations offer up new ways of receiving what we would rather not see.
Drawings, prints, and zines are all elements of Taehee Whang’s interdisciplinary practice and often act as storyboards for the creation of their videos. Profoundly lyrical, Whang’s experimental animations chart an autobiographical footprint of arrested emotions and vulnerability. In a quest to honor the people that they love, biological or chosen, the work becomes a personal commentary on a life shaped by love, both absent and present. They record themselves into the realities of our time with alternative narratives rooted in queer community, family history, and womxn’s labor. An extraordinary introspection, amassed in drawing, animation, and prose writing, prevails in their stories.
*Founded in 2018 by Ann deVere, Womxn Who Print (WWP) is a NYC based coalition of womxn printers, creating opportunity and community in printmaking. WWP sets in motion the active engagement of collaborative interests and support for, by, and with community.
Taehee Whang, My mound, 2018