Abstract
Political printmaking is a product of time and place. The social context makes it relevant, capable of recognition and response. Yet there are spaces within the political landscape where a synergy of media, message, and engagement produces distinctively local art. Such spaces sometimes exist on the cusp of change – in a moment before the product is generalised or overtaken by other cultural expressions. The last decades before the introduction of digital technology marked an important time for poster-making, a time when the use of photography in print making enabled a style of community commentary. The concurrent emergence of the global city with its neglected outer suburbs became a new focus for community art practice. In response to new urban scenarios Garage Graphix, a print workshop operating in western Sydney through the 1980s and 90s, developed innovative techniques in community-centred design and production. The pre-digital process of both design and print production facilitated community expression of the socio-political landscape in a period of urban rapid change. A distinctive workshop practice enabled the training and employment of local residents, in particular suburban women and First Nation residents as print-makers. Further, the form was linked to the technologies of the time with the 1980s representing the last decade before digital photography gained ascendency. This paper considers the artworks created by Garage Graphix as a critical product of the emerging culture of Western Sydney and and as a methodology of local political expression shaped by art form, feminism, technology, and place.
Presenters
Marla GuppyArtist, Public Art Curator, Guppy Art Management - Creative Consultancy, New South Wales, Australia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2021 Special Focus - Voices from the Edge: Negotiating the Local in the Global
KEYWORDS
Suburban Culture, Political Posters, Feminist Printmakers, Emerging Technologies, Aboriginal Printmakers
