Practical Dialogues
Practical Dialogues

Practical Dialogues was helpful in that Gino had access to a fully equipped printing studio where he could experiment with different print processes most of which he had used previously. Etching, Spit bite, stone lythography and drypoint were the techniques he gravitated to enabling him to understand the potential for there use in: installation, sculpture, word drawings and online possibilities.  Gino was introduced me to the technique of spit bite by Sue Baker-Kenton and discovered a way of working that he wouldn’t have considered before. Gino's main priority was to be able to independently use the process and materials of each. Gino had previously also used digital printing technologies but for him – like the emperor’s new clothes – they became predictable, meaningless and persistently lacking in surface dynamics that could evolve intelligently. 

At that moment Gino felt printmaking was the perfect vehicle for a postmodern Western-centric art world, in which visual culture was influenced by photographic media, reproduction and a splintering from reality. The philosopher Jean Baudrillard would describe this world as ‘Simulacra’ where all things worthy of recognition as contemporary art are heavily referenced and commodified. 

What better way to challenge the simulacra of contemporary art than use a method of duplication, which is complicit in Baudrillard’s world - referenced and commodified duplication. Prints, independently orientated, echoing Who? What? Why?  For the contemporary artist entertainment, sensation, decoration and visual spectacle are standards. Human vulnerability to technology and its inevitable conditioning is easier when entertainment eases and sanitises the human consciousness, particularly in an increasingly insular world. A world of interiors rather than exteriors.  

Sue Baker Kenton was the lead artist for Practical Dialogues you can find out more about her by visiting her website: Sue Baker Kenton


The other participating artists were. Peter Clayton, Serena Smith, Richard Devereaux and Gordon Millar to view their work visit the links to their websites.


To find out more about Practical Dialogue please follow the links below


http://www.leicesterprintworkshop.com/exhibitions-and-projects/exhibitions/edited_highlights/practical_dialogue/


http://www.leicesterprintworkshop.com/exhibitions-and-projects/exhibitions/practical_dialogue/


http://www.leicesterprintworkshop.com/files/uploads/practical_dialogue__article_for_printmaking_today.pdf


Black

Doubt



For Practical dialogues each artist made a print edition of 15, 5 prints being shared with the participating artists. Gino chose to make a make a stone lithographiy print edition.


He chose Stone Lithography because it was a process he responded to very readily. The master printer Sue Baker-Kenton editioned the final print.  "Doubt" 




Selected Prints made during Practical Dialogues


Gino was very familiar with different printing methods and having the freedom to use a fully equipped print studio was an enormous bonus. Below are a few examples of other prints he made during Practical Dialogues at Leicester print studios.

" Talking to the Dead" etching spit bite

"Dance of Life" stone lithograph

"Under the Forest Floor" etching spit bite

"Reaching" etching

"Surviving in a Diminishing World" etching

"Let's Us Stick Our Head in the Sand" stone lithograph

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