Printmaking and multiple temporalities

Abstract

In this paper, I explore the relationship between old and new graphic media practices. I have made woodcuts or woodcut in combination with new technologies such as laser cutting. I am interested in how the language works as a manipulative tool in our everyday life. In the art projects described in this text, I have explored the language from the economic sphere and the typical language from bureaucratic governmental plans. Our high-tech society encourage high-speed decisions often with unintended consequences. I am interested in how this speed can be critically questioned. A key question is the extent to which the choice of printing technique influences and becomes part of the content. Can the old ‘out-of-date’ printing technologies today represent something beyond the purely functional and have qualities that are not just about nostalgia, but which may also be critical and productive of alternative futures (economic, political, etc.).

Keywords:

• woodcut
• temporality
• critique
• language
• economy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note on contributor

Caroline Kierulf is an Artist and Associate Professor in Art with focus on Printmaking at KHiB. She graduated from KHiB in 1998 and lives in Bergen. She works with woodcut and usually combines text and image in her work. She is interested in the significance of media and pop cultural practices in different forms of traditional printed matter like posters, books, signs and logos.

Notes

1. Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528).

2. Thomas Bewick (1753–1828) was a British artist and a Natural history author.

3. Edvard Munch (1863–1944) Norwegian Artist.

4. Lucy Lippard (b. 1937) is an American writer, art critic, activist and curator.

5. Sol Lewitt was an American conceptual artist (1928–2007)

6. Barbara Krüger (b. 1945) is an American conceptual artist, designer and writer.

7. Per Kleiva (b. 1933) is a Norwegian artist.