Improbable Blossom

#printing #design

Improbable Blossom is a five day screen printing workshop exploring screen printed organic visual language on found materials through drawing experiments, paper cuts and stencil printing.

The production of art and rubbish are two sides of the same coin: defining an edition means separating prints of artistic value from imperfect waste paper. Design practice means sorting essential information from superfluous detail; waste is superfluous and must be removed from sight. These two poles are inextricably linked - particularly when we think about the mountains of refuse we produce - and design.

Our premise for Improbable Blossom is: How can we approach printmaking in a more sustainable way? Which boundaries can we set ourselves? What can we reuse? How do we deal with mistakes?

Our starting point will be a visit to the botanical gardens in Berlin, where we would like to explore the rhythms and textures of organic forms through drawing, thinking about the incredible diversity and multiplicity of organic lifeforms that have evolved within limited and extreme environments. Flora, fauna and fungi have each developed a plethora of strategies to survive in their specific habitats - whether they are symbiotic, cyclical, antagonistic or parasitic. One creature’s waste is another’s basis for existence, and every natural limitation leads to new pathways - more creativity, and more complexity. These samples will be translated into papercuts and then, into stencils. We will be using an alternative screen-printing process working only with paper stencils to print onto found materials - newspaper, waste paper, packaging materials - to create surprising combinations and compositions that generate strange and unforeseen corridors of meaning. Each participant will make a series of about 20-30 unique small format prints working with one to four colours.
 

Schedule

Monday 10:00 - 17:00 (+ 1h lunch break)

Tuesday 10:00 - 18:00 (+ 1h lunch break)

Wednesday 10:00 - 18:00 (+ 1h lunch break)

Thursday 10:00 - 18:00 (+ 1h lunch break)

Friday 10:00 - 14:00

Prior application requirements
Please collect interesting organic shapes, e.g. of flora, fauna or fungi, that you come across
when walking in or outside your current city of residence. Document your impressions with
drawings, photographs or short films.

Knowledge requirements
Workshop for beginners and students with a little printmaking experience.
Participants with an interest in graphic design, drawing and printmaking.

Equipment requirements
Pencils, sketchbook, scissors, box cutter

Charlotte Hornung (she/her), UdK M.A. graduate and visual artist, stands for bold colors and geometric shapes. She prints via screen or stencil printing, both on paper and constructed sculptural objects. From 2023 to 2024 she worked as a screenprint lecturer for UdK Berlin as well as Kulturforum.

https://www.instagram.com/charlottehornung/

 

Jo Rüßmann (she/her), UdK M.A. graduate, illustrator and comic artist. She writes and draws graphic narratives with a focus on the tension generated between linear narration and its subversion through narrative and logical breaks. Analog drawing and printing are always at the heart of her work. From 2023 to 2024 she taught screenprinting courses at UdK Berlin and at Kulturforum.

https://www.instagram.com/jo_el_ru/