Re:Print/Re:Present/Re:View: Three Artists Three Projects

THREE ARTISTS THREE PROJECTS Salah M . Hassan [Print is]... a theoretical language of evolving ideas. Hugh Merrill1 Taking Hugh Merrill's definition of printmaking as a point of departure, Ruth Weisberg has argued that there has been a paradigmatic shift towards a redefinition of printmaking . Based on a more inclusive model, printmaking moves beyond precise techniques to encompass a set of operations involving "a generative matrix." As she argues, this model emphasizes "seriality, replication, copying, and translation ," and is influenced by the postmodernist critique of modernist notions of originality that emphasize hierarchy based on the original, whether in drawing, painting, or concept.2 Taking into consideration factors of gender and race and the impact of feminist discourses of the last three decades, such a shift reminds us that printmaking always has been and will continue to be a rich and diverse tradition that encompasses the "personal, intimate gesture and the popular, the commercial, and the political." With such an expanded definition of printmaking our aesthetic criteria and conceptual framework of judgment also expand to accommodate feminist and non-western discourses and interventions that further destabilize the Eurocentric emphasis on genius and originality , thus contributing to a reconsideration of the visual image as a subliminal or purposeful source of power, as a medium of performativity, and as a semiotic construct that has been open to influences of related fields, including literary and critical theory.3 This theoretical framework sums up the conceptual and curatorial impetus of the theme and ideas behind our current project: Re:Prin t/Re:Present/Re: View. In preparation for Philagrafika 2010, a quadrennial international festival of contemporary art to be launched in Philadelphia, three internationally renowned artists—Maria Magdalena CamposPons , Rachid Korai'chi, and Berni Searle—were invited to propose individual works that would come together in Re:Print/Re:Present/Re:View, a series of installations in several sites and venues across Philadelphia culminating in an exhibition at the Temple Gallery. The project spotlights the print as an art form, celebrating the evolution of the printed image in history and its emergence as 5 0 * N k a Journal of Contemporary African Art Maria M agdalena Campos-Pons, wallpaper production image for installation Corner/Opera . Re-thin king a Site. 2007. Rachid Korai'chi, Phillis Wheatiey, 2007. Rachid Korafchi, William Penn, 2007. Production images for banners. Production images for banners. 5 2 ' N k a J ournal of Contemporary African Art a complex and dynamic force in contemporary art and culture. The works have been conceived as site specific and/or performance interventions based on current and historically significant events, two of which interact with relevant public spaces. The project is intended to engage with the rich history, legacy, and diversity of Philadelphia and to stir more dialogue than the typical white cube exhibition . The vibrant heritage of Philadelphia as a metropolis with great historical sites lends itself to myriad possibilities for the artists to conceive their aesthetically and intellectually exciting projects. The three participating artists, all of African or African diasporic origins, are among the most influential artists currently active in the contemporary art scene in the United States and internationally . Moreover, they all share a conceptualist approach to art making, despite their diverse use of various media and genres, and they all are formally and thematically innovative and provocative in their use of technology in the print media. The title Re:Print/Re:Present/Re:View is well suited to convey the overarching theme for the project as an exhibition and as a series of interventions and site-specific installations. Above all it echoes the current theoretical concerns and discourses associated with print as a medium of artistic intervention referred to above. On a more specific level, the word "represent" can convey a sense of the complexity of issues the participating artists intended to explore in their projects. It suggests a privileging of the artists' individual voices, and positions them as "representative" of themselves— as spokespersons for the thematic and identity issues they address in their work. "Represent" is related to both "representation" and "re-presentation ," which are integral to the medium of printmaking in its traditional and contemporary modes. In African American...