Southern Graphics Council
The 2011 SGC International Conference
Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts
Washington University, St. Louis, MO.
March 16 – 19, 2011
In contemporary printmaking, equilibrium looks like a vast liquid whose glassy surface reflects the world to us. It ripples with any slight nudge, making distorted but fresh images each time it is disturbed. The ripples, like radio waves, are absorbed everywhere and by everything; print has become ubiquitous. And yet it maintains autonomy and power, beauty and depth.
The conference theme Equilibrium addresses printmaking's timeless ability to absorb constant change and to balance complementary forces within the shifting landscape of the field. Printmaking is synthetic and integrative, a complex set of fluctuating relationships between makers, materials, means of production and distribution, critical discourse, contemporary art, and popular culture. These forces create a dynamic equilibrium, even as the field of printmaking is challenged from within and without.
Equilibrium explores the challenges, fluctuating forces, currents, and (new) waves, as well as the poise, reflection, and continuity of print in the 21st century. Inherent to any state of equilibrium is the very real possibility of disequilibrium. This conference will also examine the fruitful instability of disequilibrium that can produce provocative changes in practice and theory.
