Messages from Artists, Messages from Akiruno: Neilton Clarke

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Neilton Clarke working at Art Studio Itsukaichi, Tokyo, Japan, during the inaugural residency, 1993.

‘Messages from Artists • Messages from Akiruno’ is the Art Studio Itsukaichi (ASI) Exhibition 2021, celebrating the longevity of the dedicated printmaking studio situated on the mountainous westside of the Tokyo metropolis, whose residency program has been running since 1993.

Curated by Jun Shirasu, in cooperation with the Art Studio Itsukaichi Operation Committee (ASIOC) and the Akiruno City Education Board (ACEB), the exhibition highlights artworks by over 80 artists, Japanese and foreign, made while undertaking residencies during the period from inception until 2019. The artworks are now a key part of the Akiruno City Collection.

Sydney Printmakers member Neilton Clarke undertook the inaugural 5-month residency in 1993 as an invitee of the Japan Foundation, subsequently living there, and where (pandemics aside) he still spends time.

Neilton Clarke, The Colloquial Gun (言葉遊び),
woodblock & copperplate relief print with embossing, 1993.

Produced during his residency, the editioned 5-part work entitled The Colloquial Gun (言葉遊び), also acquired by the National Gallery of Australia and Machida Museum of Graphic Arts (Tokyo), figures in the exhibition.

Including statements and related materials by the artists and curator, the exhibition runs 12th to 20th October across two venues, the Chuo Kominkan Gallery (Akigawa, Akiruno, Tokyo), and Itsukaichi Shimin Gallery (Itsukaichi, Akiruno, Tokyo).

More Information (in Japanese) HERE

Burnie Print Prize: Laura Stark

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Laura Stark, Pathways VI 6th State, collagraph, blind embossing, collage.

 

Pathways VI 6th State is the last image of this series of prints originally inspired by the markings left by larvae on scribbly gums. It refers to the ancient pathways or dreamtime tracks of the  aborigines across the continent, the breadth of our landscape as seen from the air, and also the internal and external pathways or meanderings which we follow in the path of life.

In this series my procedure was to change, manipulate or reduce the plate from which they were printed in a number of different ways. This last version, a collage of print remnants,  encompasses the original theme but the pathways have become more tenuous, even fractured, perhaps an indication of uncertain times.

Burnie Print Prize: Neilton Clarke

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Here’s the next Sydney Printmaker who is a finalist in the Burnie Print Prize.

Ring Reader: Hossawa to the Sea

(Unique-state woodblock & copperplate relief print, collage & embossing, 2020).

Hossawa is a Hinohara-area waterfall on the mountainous Tokyo-Yamanashi border, its waters feeding Akigawa River, in turn Tama River, Tokyo Bay, and finally the sea. The experience of the locale feeds into and informs my studio activity, having spent two-plus decades living there.
Countless hours spent exploring its cedar & pine-clad inclines on scooter and on foot make for indelible impressions, its maple, camelia, azalea & hydrangea groves amplifying the marked seasonal changes with bursts of colour.
The work’s bell-like ovoid forms have been hand-printed directly from prepared cedar log-end offcuts sourced from mountainside outposts. Their pronounced granular striations, carrying a record of the summer-winter growth alternations over many years, make for a kind of logbook in more senses than one.
Seismic-prone, being awoken by tremors & shakes in the early hours is part of the fabric of the everyday there. The collage-aesthetic employed here, with its capacity for fissure, juxtaposition, and also containment, lends itself well to addressing such kinds of dislocation.