Creative Methods in Dialogue

The Global Asias Working Group presents:

Printmaking methods have historically held particular pertinence in anti-imperialist and decolonial struggles across Asia since the 20th century. The Modern Woodcut Movement in China for example notably led efforts to expand woodcutting as a quick and cheap means of disseminating nationalist messages against the onset of Japanese aggression and World War II. The movement gave rise to a renewed sense of artmaking as a populist praxis, art for not only the everyday and the collective, but also the anti-colonial and the autonomous. The movement’s work and thinking influenced a subsequent generation of leftist printmakers in post-war Asia. The Inter-Asia Woodcut Mapping collective (IAWM) has researched and written extensively on how the legacies of this influence can be seen in printmaking practices in East and Southeast Asia today.  

In conversation with IAWM and the printmaking collectives Print Pals and Spill Paint Not Oil, this event will consider: How can the traditions of anti-imperialist printmaking methods be mobilized in our current moment? How might such creative practices provide help to further build transnational solidarities across Asia, the Asian diaspora, and beyond? What would it take, and what could be gained, in having academics engage seriously with the art of printmaking as a collaborative, knowledge-producing tool? 

About the panelists:

The Inter-Asia Woodcut Mapping research collective, based in Hong Kong, has published zines about inter-Asia woodblock printmaking practices as well as curated a number of exhibitions bringing together works from printmaking collectives in Southeast and East Asia.

Print Pals is a woodblock printing collective based in New York City. They have designed and coordinated printing projects open to the public and in dialogue with the printing group Print and Carve in Taipei, Taiwan. 

Spill Paint Not Oil is an autonomous network of artists, organizers, friends, and mischief-makers, primarily based in Mni Sóta Makoce (so-called Minnesota) who’ve held various roles across movements, art projects, and campaigns.

An Approaching Global Asias Event hosted in conjunction with Maiyo Saji and Dri Tattersfield

Co-Sponsors: ICGC, History, Geography, Asian American Studies, Art, Immigration History Research Center, Design Justice Collective at the School of Design, CLA Human Rights Program, Institute for Advanced Study, Office of Equity and Diversity, Institute for Global Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Center for RIDGS Studies