An exhibition curated by Richard Ardagh and Graham Bignell of New North Press
-10 years ago Richard and Graham held an exhibition called, Reverting to Type in which the exhibited works from a range of artists and designers. They also asked a range of people not usually associated with letterpress such as wordsmiths, graphic designers and poets to contribute ideas and work to create prints. (images above are from reverting to type exhibition video in 2010) https://vimeo.com/17156405
-This exhibition, Reverting To Type, Protest Posters needed to be bigger in scale and content.
-As there were more people involved, this show needed direction as there were so many people. Richard and Graham wanted to give it focus.
-Impetus of original 2020 show was Trump Brexit etc, in Jan Feb 2020. Covid then made the messages more important BLM etc, 2020 fuelled the exhibition and made it have a lot more impact than could have been first imagined.
-A23D, a 3D letterpress font from Richard had funding from the Arts Council. The pair then decided to apply for funding for this exhibition to help with the website to reach further in lockdown situations.
-It isn't an exhibition about letterpress, it is about the communication of the message. Using the medium as a basis of expression.
-We are bombarded with a whole range of political issues, their exhibition is a statement of where we are now.
-10 years since the last show, there is a long history of protest and posters and this needs to be shown
John Christopher of Flowers and Fleurons has written an essay on community in the Long Primer booklet above. (bought this to read)
-Lots of different voices in the show presenting the work, not censoring any voices.
-The exhibition is arranged without hierarchy, no consideration of the 'top printers' spaces
-Richard ran workshops with local children in January 2020. The plan was to print posters to fill planned gaps in the exhibition spaces to sit proudly alongside everyone elses work. Because of the covid situation, Richard printed the posters but they still included the words and ideas of the children,
-Posters include subjects including, gender, veganism, social media addiction and feminism a very diverse collection
-A snapshot of where we are in history
-Collaborations (like last time, invited artists, poets etc) this time the pair produced 26 posters and invited people who were big in activism eg. to collaborate
-Richard and Graham worked on posters with to give examples, Crisis charity, school leavers who had their marks downgraded and a Senegalese asylum seeker who made a poster about connection (face to face, facebook, face mask) https://www.revertingtotype.com/posters/c
-The exhibition is open 04th Dec 2020 - 29th Jan 2021
-Social media has helped to show and also build a fascination with craft, technique and process.
-I asked, Were the subjects the younger individuals brought up in the workshop that Richard created the posters for, very different to the protest subjects that were projected by others?
Richard and Graham answered saying that the younger participants brought an interesting perspective, some of the individuals felt like their voices were not heard and they were frustrated they could not vote. That the older generations had screwed things up for them.
-They felt like the exhibition gave people the ability to express their voices and opinions and felt that was much more important than people learning the technique
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