Printmaking as Indirect Drawing, 2016
Abstract: A Gravura como ocupação e desvio - A photographic essay about the practice of printmaking in contemporary art, taking as a starting point the observation of two workshops in Lisbon – MeelPress and Galeria Diferença. This work raises questions considering distance – between the observer and a familiar practice and between drawing of the printing surface towards the final support. The attention is driven towards the notions of occupation and deviation, presenting as central to printmaking preparation and indirect drawing. A distinction which was not imposed previously but was instead a result of the gathering of photographic images. If the work begun in a participant observer mode with no visible results, there was an attempt to construct a distance to the practice. A decision that led to the visits of other workshops, with an intent to exaggerate central imagery of printmaking: the cutting of metal, polishing and others. Visits that represent a turning point between two moments of the work when reflection places in a central point the figure of the visitor, in relation to the specialist and the amateur. Interval and process equally transformative. If preparation in printmaking leads to a first gesture that erases, the indirect drawing permits the unfolding of the notions of improvisation, revelation, repetition as degradation and inversion as losing your bearings. Lastly, collaboration as an aspect of indirect drawing in printmaking, between visitors and specialists, attention regimes and humour regimes.