Co-creating with materials : a practice-led approach to experimental printmaking

Abstract

This practice-led study investigates the relationship between the artist and material in the context of experimental printmaking as a relational approach, reimagining creative responsibility as a shared phenomenon among all agents involved in artistic practice. Grounded in posthumanist and new materialist theories, this study explores arguments of human-material relationships as relational and participatory. This study examines the entanglement of human and material agents within creative environments, challenging anthropocentric views of the processes, materials and tools involved in artistic practice. Responding to human-centric perspectives of agency, this study refers to Karen Barad’s agential realist ontology and Lambros Malafouris’ material engagement theories to reimagine agency as an emergent property of engagement rather than an attribute of the human subject. Furthermore, the idea of artworks as the manifestation of growing relationships between the artist and material in practice is theoretically considered through Donna Haraway’s notion of ‘becoming-with’. This study posits that creative agency extends beyond the human artist, acknowledging the active roles of materials and environments in the co-creation of artworks.

This study employs an explorative experimental printmaking approach that emphasises tactile engagement and responsiveness to materials, allowing for a dynamic exploration of their inherent properties and behaviours through imprints and transfers. Informed by Bolt’s participatory methodology, I view the artist, materials, tools, and environment as co-responsible elements in the creative process. By relationally engaging with materials and tools that can be found and brought into both the domestic environment and printmaking studio, I seek to highlight these material participatory agents in the form of mark-making and surface impacts, thereby revealing their roles in the processes to the viewer. The creative process and outcomes were presented in an exhibition comprised of eight series of experimental prints, bringing attention to the creative agency of an artist-tools-materials-environment collective. Following a relational approach to creative research, I explore emerging tensions of knowledge generation through practice, reflecting on the processes and outcomes through documentary images and transcriptions.

This study aims to broaden the understanding of shared creative agency in art practice, specifically in printmaking as an artistic process. Subsequently, this could lead to a more responsible approach to materials in creative practice and could decentralise the human artist by encouraging relational creative practices. This study critically evaluates the role of the material bodies in art practice as equally crucial to the role of the human artist.