Thanks to everyone who came out on Friday for our Copy Jam! at the Printers’ Ball in Chicago. Some of the artists on the scene included Judge, Temporary Services, Jimmy Luu, Chad Kouri, Leslie Mutchler, and Jena Osman. A big thanks to all fifty artists who contributed work to Copy Jam! as well as our support crew (you know who you are), and Fred, April, and all the people at Poetry and Columbia College who made the Printers’ Ball happen. It was a crazy, busy night- this time around we made more than 500 copies!
We’ll be posting stuff throughout the week- a shop tour at the Columbia College Center for the Book, a walking tour of Printers Row, and other assorted miscellany. But for now, here are some pictures of Copy Jam! 2 (click for larger images).
…who can you trust? The photocopier: friendly, time-saving office equipment or malicious, information-stealing thief? Warning, if you’re already paranoid about security, you do not want to watch this CBS report on digital copiers. You won’t be able to fall asleep tonight. Let the (justified) paranoia begin…
You probably could have guessed that Printeresting’s favorite character from AMC’s Madmen is the Xerox 914 that makes its debut in the first episode of season two. A hard-drinkin’ and hard-smokin’ machine for a hard-drinkin’ and hard-smokin’ era! That said, a close second is Ned the Xerox Repairman. Beneath that charm and charisma lies the inky heart of a true print aficionado.
On Sunday afternoon here in Baltimore, Gary Kachadourian stood in an alley selling posters of a cinder block wall for $9.99. The posters, enlargements of a hand-drawn scale rendering, were produced on the artist’s office copy machine. Gary described the copier as “a beautiful machine.”
His pitch: “This poster enables the purchaser to alter his or her living space so that it can feel like a basement, institutional stairwell, laundromat, prison cell, back of shopping center, or other cinder block related space.”
Sounds great to me! Here’s the poster installed in my studio, with “before and after” views:
It really works! My studio looks dingier than ever. This project was a part of this year’s Transmodern Festival, for more images click through after the jump.
Y’know, just forget about Xerox Corp and their fancy elitist Innovation Group! They spend untold millions on their grumble-grumbledisappearing ink! And they spend billions more on their razzem-frazzeminvisible ink! Y’know, a humble print artist like me can’t afford to fund a team of research scientists operating from a shadowy mountaintop base.
You want print innovations on the cheap? MAKE Magazine to the rescue! Make your own “invisible ink printer” by filling your yellow ink cartridge with concentrated lemon juice. All you need to do is ruin your printer!
P.S. Xerox, I didn’t mean it… I still love you, really…Please, come back!
Baltimore-based artist Gary Kachadourian currently has a solo exhibition titled “Life-Sized Prints and Assorted Drawing Projects” at the Gormley Gallery at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. The show features images xeroxed to a 1:1 scale with real life. The print subjects include a light pole, a Volvo, and, if you can believe it, a McDonald’s restaurant! These are massive…
The prints are all from 8.5″x11″ drawings that are scanned at 1200dpi and then converted to life size. The files that are used for the prints are TIFF BITMAPS at 200dpi. The largest sections are 170″x36″, trimmed and taped together.
With what appear to be some hardscrabble economic times ahead of us, it may be an appropriate time to re-evaluate the way we as artists do business.
With that in mind, I dusted off my DVD collection to revisit on old favorite- Full Frame: Documentary Shorts Vol. 2. In 2003, “Have You Seen this Man?,” a 17-minute short by filmmakers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, was released exploring the conceptual art of Brooklyn-based artist Geoff Lupo. Through his work, Lupo challenges traditional notions of value, advertising, and distribution in our consumer society. With the xeroxed flyer as his print medium, Lupo “highlights the futility of human behavior” by selling seemingly worthless detritus like paper clips, crackers, and thumb tacks to the people of Brooklyn (an audience particularly receptive to this kind of social experiment).
The flyers initiate brief performances: moments of one-on-one human interaction and excuses for personal communication. In the film, Lupo points out that the foundation for the interaction is based on “a mutually agreed upon absurdity” as the labor involved for both seller and buyer far outweighs the inherent monetary value of the object being sold. Ultimately, the question seems to be less about the value of the object and instead about the value of the exchange itself.
Thanks to everyone who came out on Friday for our Copy Jam! at the Printers’ Ball in Chicago. Some of the artists on the scene included Judge, Temporary Services, Jimmy Luu, Chad Kouri, Leslie Mutchler, and Jena Osman. A big thanks to all fifty artists who contributed work to Copy Jam! as well as our support crew (you know who you are), and Fred, April, and all the people at Poetry and Columbia College who made the Printers’ Ball happen. It was a crazy, busy night- this time around we made more than 500 copies!
SuperKonductor’s Gimme.
