Good Printing. Group Show

Good Printing. Group Show
22 May - 14 September 2017

Drawing on the group show Nice Drawing (2015), Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde presents Good Printing, a second iteration of a series of exhibitions that don't need to emerge from a clever title or overarching concept, but rather presents works by 10 artists that have a quirky and humorous approach to a single medium.

Beware viewer! Don't expect to find the walls of the gallery covered with works on paper, framed photographs, lithography, publications, and against the promises of the title of the exhibition, there won't be perfect impressions! The artists explore the process of printmaking and the potentials of the technology of the mechanical image creations and reproduction that 'enables the original to meet the beholder halfway. […] And in permitting the reproduction to meet the beholder or listener in his own particular situation, it reactivates the object reproduced.' (Walter Benjamin)

Good Printing addresses issues of printmaking in regards to authenticity, reproducibility, and the mechanisation of art making. Nonetheless, the artists don't engage in a nostalgic quest for the return to the original in order to restore the aura of the work of art. Rather, they celebrate the potentiality of the defects and inaccuracies that (can) occur in the process of copying originals or reproductions, which eventually redefines the essence of the originality of their work.

By confronting seemingly identical copies, Aisha Khalid and :mentalKLINIK highlight mistakes and discrepancies found in the mass production and reproduction of books or goods through the offset printing technique. On the other hand, Hassan Sharif and Haleh Redjaian provoke and turn to their advantage an impairment of print processing in the darkroom and screen-printing in the studio. Eglé Budvytyté and Sreshta Rit Premnath question the ontology of non-reproducibility of performance art by recording and imprinting the traces of their act on photographs and vinyl record. While Pauline Bastard and William Engelen propose devices that defy the very possibility of performing a reproduction, Rania Bellou attempts to bypass technology by drawing the precise enlarged copies of archival photographs.

Where printmaking removes the artist's hand from the execution of the artwork, the artists in this exhibition develop strategies to enforce the mechanical process of reproduction, culminating with Ilan Manouach, who entrusts the hands of the audience to create and disseminate unique and immaterial copies of the same ancient Greek myths.

Every Sunday, the Expanded Printing Room invites visitors to a new display of works by some of the exhibited artists. The schedule of the rotating exhibitions will be updated on our social media every week and a programme will be available at the reception.

Yasmina Reggad