Slow Writing/Sustainable Printing: An artist/maker’s quest to develop frugal, sustainable and self-produced printing materials

Abstract

I propose a practical, object-based presentation that demonstrates my research into frugal, sustainable and self-produced art printing materials.

The project slow writing has evolved from my deeply held belief that over-consumption and a lack of awareness of provenance has caused the important things in life to lose value. We acquire things so very easily, without thought of where they came from or where they’ll go when we’ve finished with them. Out of a commitment to living and working with only the materials and tools I already had or was able to make, came the necessity to find a viable alternative to buying traditional oil-based printing ink products and wasteful, expensive inkjet cartridges. The idea of asking a question and seeking an answer from within our surroundings is something we can all do. All too often we want for new products and dump the old rather than use parts to create something new.

The gathering of ancient traditional recipes, the ingredients written therein, collecting or making necessary tools and the documentation of the many slow and time-consuming processes that went into making such a simple everyday product, took over from the act of printing to become the artwork. The recording of the making process is the tracing of an act: where the object and the maker’s thoughts become linked, beginning a sense of conversation.

Initially inks suitable for writing and drawing were made, using 5 base ingredients: ivory, vine, lamp, hawthorn and gallo-tannic. I continue to develop these recipes: experimenting with and processing additional materials, to make them printable and reproducible.

These resources will be incorporated into hacked and adapted mobile photographic devices and printers; powered by renewable or self-generated energy sources to allow post peak oil mechanical image reproduction. I then plan to make a series of books - printed by both hand and machine, with these inks and with paper
hand-made, cut and bound. The books will reveal the stories of the ingredients, the people and the methods that made them.

The collection of books, inks, associated objects and outcomes highlights themes that run through my work: encouraging a lighter touch on our earth, seeing beauty in daily life, cherishing ideas without franchise, sharing resources, doing it yourself and importantly, enjoying the act of doing. The artwork itself is not the endpoint; it is in flux, forming a focal point where shared ideas can emerge. I want this work to engage on many levels – to evoke enchantment with nature, to charm the viewer, and to kindle care in the choices we make; to encourage acts of sharing and of frugal d-i-y.

About the Artist:
Catherine is a visual artist and maker, a textile print and dye specialist, but with a practice that encompasses a wide range of media and techniques. Her work is driven by a passion: to create without burden, to add to the existing but often unseen, to represent the forgotten or undervalued traditional skills. With images made and found, with ordinary things, with people’s memories and writings, she reveals the hidden, sometimes entangled ways, the life stories held captive inside everyday products. She wants others to look and find them also; and to question what we take for granted in our increasingly unbounded and throw-away world.