Working Towards a Critical Discourse
Philagrafika is Philadelphia’s collaborative print organization. With an ambitious mission of fostering the community of print artists, expanding the critical discourse and making Philadelphia an international center for printmaking. In moving toward this goal Philagrafika’s Artistic Director, José Roca has created an online publication called Working States. Which can be found at www.philagraphika.org.
They describe this publication as intending to, “facilitate an international exchange of ideas and encourage new critical theory on the field of printmaking in what has become a growing cross discipline practice in contemporary art”; so far so good. The mission statement is a bit more specific in its far-reaching goals:
Philagrafika Artistic Director José Roca, has developed the publication with two principal areas for critical thought: statements will include themes related to the current programs of Philagrafika and, of our partner organizations. The statements will gather critical thinking centered on this expanded notion of the print; and documents will cover the recent history of contemporary printmaking and will include theoretical, historical and translated texts from other languages related to the printed image incorporating them into the dialog in the United States. As this project grows we will include re-issues of seminal articles that lacked wide circulation in the United States, new content that discusses artists whose practice transcends traditional boundaries and understanding of the printed image.
So far the publications consists of three downloadable PDF documents, called strangely, “DOCUMENTS”. The first is a summary of the lively and intelligent comments made by the noted scholar and book artist Johanna Drucker at the 2007 Southern Graphics Conference in Richmond, VA:
By analyzing the valued systems of production, conception, distribution, agency, and critical discourse that surround printmaking, Drucker argues that the advent of digital media transforms and expands not only the definitions of what constitutes printmaking, but also a general understanding of its cultural and artistic significance.
The second document is by Luis Camnitzer, writer, art historian and co-founder of the Graphics Workshop in New York City:
Provocatively titled Printmaking: a Colony of the Arts, questions the segregation that printmakers often inflict onto themselves, taking Colonization as a metaphor.
And the last document is a piece by José Roca about the artist Óscar Muñoz that was originally presented as a lecture and it reads a bit like a power point presentation.
While the titles and blurbs may seem to imply a little navel gazing on the part of the Working States editorial staff I can say that they are well worth reading and succeed in pushing the discourse in interesting directions. And it should also be noted that it’s free and will only cost you time you might otherwise spend in the blogosphere.
The “STATEMENTS” section of Working States is listed as ‘coming soon’ this dovetails with Philagrafika’s open call for editorial suggestions and content proposals. If you have something to contribute do so by contacting Caitlin Perkins at cperkins@philagrafika.org
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