
Exchanging Story: connecting by the printed surface
Tue 12 Feb - Thu 28 Feb 2013
This exhibition emerged from a meeting between Gippsland Centre for Art and Design Director Rodney Forbes and Navajo artist Melanie Yazzie at Colorado University in 2012.
A collaborative print exchange was organised to bring together American and Australian printmakers, both indigenous and non-indigenous and to exhibit the results at both universities.
“Print exchange folios are a remarkable way of setting up networks between artists. Each artist produces an edition of prints large enough for everyone in the collaboration to receive a copy, plus several copies for exhibition and subsequent retention in institution collections. As prints are a portable and multiple form, the process lends itself to exchanges across great distance and across cultures. The theme of the portfolio was ‘exchanging story’ – how sharing stories creates both understanding and wonder across cultures as well as revealing commonalities.’
Accompanying the Exchanging Story folio is Tracking, Locating and Mapping, a second exchange folio curated by Melanie Yazzie. Featuring printmakers from across USA, Finland, Canada and Australia, it examines the concept of special places.
Each artist has provided a statement, which tells of the story or place which inspired the work. There will be a public ‘closing’ of the exhibition on Tuesday February 26 at 5pm with a floor talk by the co-curator, Rodney Forbes.