… a great little video by Nick Coppins.
Last year, Nick and his company, Telectran/Aqualux, fitted and provided a fantastic neutral-light, low wattage LED system for the Big Fag’s printroom. It’s transformed the way we work – we can see into every corner and the colour of our prints is “true” (rather than greenish with the fluoro lights).
In exchange, we worked on making some prints with Nick just before Christmas. Pictures soon!
[Jason Wing's offset lithograph printed on the Big Fag, 2011]
[Vernon Ah Kee's offset lithograph printed on the Big Fag, 2011]
Big Fag Press has recently begun printing some limited edition prints for artists working with 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. So far, we’ve printed with Jason Wing, and Vernon Ah Kee. You can read about our experience with Jason here.
Over at the 4A website, you can go ahead and order a copy of these prints for yourself!
[photo courtesy of The Madding Crowd]
Diego Bonetto, one of the directors of the Big Fag Press, has won the 2011 Marrickville Contemporary Art Prize!
Diego’s prizewinning work was an installation comprising one of his famous weed terrariums, alongside a print he produced in 2010 on the Big Fag:
[Diego Bonetto, Terrarium Audit, 2010, in collaboration with Lucas Ihlein]
[Diego Bonetto, Weed Terrarium, 2010]
The print was produced in collaboration with Lucas Ihlein, as part of Lucas’ Environmental Audit project. Both the print, and the Terrarium were produced as part of the exhibition In the Balance: Art for a Changing World at the MCA.
This year, the MCAP was shared between Diego and Georgie Pollard. Congratulations to you both!!
To conclude the Green Bans Art Walk project, we are putting on a film night next Saturday at the Woolloomooloo PCYC, which is across Haig Lane from the Firstdraft Depot where the press is housed.
We will be screening Pat Fiske’s excellent Rocking The Foundations with an introduction from Pat herself, and a freshly-produced film documenting the project that the fantastic Justin Hewitson has been filming for us over the past few weekends.
Hope to see you there!
Lionel Bawden, one of the directors of First Draft Gallery/Depot came along to the first day of the Green Bans Art Walk, and took the following pictures.
The captions are also compiled by him. Thanks so much Lionel, for the photos and for all your hard work helping out with the project!
Mick Fowler’s home at 115 Victoria Street,The Little Green Book. The Facts on Green Bans’, Victoria St Residents’ Action Group, 1973.
Hi all,
a busy time is ahead of us, with the Green Bans Art Walk coming up and filling the month of August with things to do in Wooloomooloo.
The eventful month is part of several publicity platforms and will be cross promoted accordingly, so I thought to clear up the confusion already arising by giving a easy-to-understand schedule of what is going to happen during August at the Big Fag Press headquarters and associates.
Below is the schedule for the Green Ban Art Walk(s), part of the WALK program organised and supported by Performance Space, see here for bookings:
Guided Walks
Departing from Firstdraft Depot
SAT 6 AUG, 12 noon
13 Riley Street, Woolloomooloo
Departing from The Cross Art Projects
SAT & SUN 6-7 AUG, 2.30pm
SAT 13 & 20 AUG, 2.30pm
Llankelly Lane, Kings Cross
Places are limited, so bookings are essential.
RSVP at performancespace.com.au
Maps for self-guided walks are available at both venues.
Exhibition hours 6-27 AUG, THUR-SAT, 11am-6pm
again, bookings for the walking tours are via Performance Space’s website.
ON TOP OF THAT WE WILL ALSO OFFER
GUIDED TOURS OF THE PRESS AS PART OF SYDNEY DESIGN 11
They will happen on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 at 1 pm, at 13 Riley St, W’loo, they are FREE and will last approximately 1 hour.
You will be shown the F.A.G. 104 offset press used by the resident artist Fiona MacDonald to create the beautiful prints on display, and we will talk about the process and the story of a salvaged printing press OLD IS NEW AGAIN.
in print..
Thanks to:
The Cross Art Projects Firstdraft Depot
For more on the Green Bans history, see this site by Sarah Barns.
Big Fag Press is well underway with its Green Bans Art Walks project in Woolloomooloo.
It’s a collaboration with The Cross Arts Projects in Kings Cross, artist Fiona McDonald, and a number of Woolloomooloo and Kings Cross residents.
Here’s a page which gives more info on the project, which has been generously supported by Performance Space, First Draft Depot, The Awesome Foundation, and the City of Sydney.
For more on the Green Bans history, see this great site by Sarah Barns.
PRINTED MATTER
Exhibition opens 7th June, 6 – 8pm. Continues till 25th June
BIG FAG PRESS
BLOOD & THUNDER PUBLISHING CONCERN
THE RIZZERIA
‘Printed Matter’ explores some of the dynamic printing collectives that operate in Sydney. Co-existing in their own unique realm, each individual collective offer a fresh take on printed output – the result being a tactile mark on paper whose character flourishes through the unpredictable nature of the machine in operation.
As far as mass produced media is concerned, the collectives diverge from their digital counterparts, through a certain je ne sais quoi that is too often undermined through digital printing processes. Designs are scrutinised to work harmoniously with the method of production, colours are picked by eye from a limited palette and stocks are often painstakingly hand fed. These elements come together to create a unique print that through its idiosyncrasies is truly human.
Metal Plate Lithography, a set on Flickr.
a ha! finally!
we were wondering, theorising and fantasising at the time when we would actually start to print images directly drawn onto the lithographic plate.
We knew of the process, the few and simple elements needed, and the potential, but never this far managed to do anything with it.
This is until Fiona MacDonald decided to print with us, using age-old techniques of metal plates lithography.
Researching on the methods Fiona discovered a number of intersting facts:
the last person at the College of Fine Arts (UNSW) to use the techinique was about 20 years ago
most of the information is old and in analogue format
plates/chemicals and drawing implements are still current, but seldom used for any purpose.
Of course we at the BFP would be happy to resurrect such old craft, we LOVE old craft!
Above is a set of images that explain the process so far, and here is the set of instructions we have been using.
The test plate printed well, so Fiona is going to design the artwork now, as part of a mapping project BFP is pulling off with the help of a number of Woolloomooloo residents.
Green Bans Art Walk (GBAW) will be a month-long exhibition at both FirstDraft Depot Project Space (the studio complex / gallery were the Big FAG lives) and at the Cross Art Projects gallery in Kings Cross.
Soon enough a proper presentation of GBAW will come up on this blog and elsewhere, as at the moment we play with tusche!
touche’
BIG FAG PRESS is Sydney's own artist-run printing collective. The BIG FAG is a beautiful offset-lithographic proofing press which can produce excellent quality prints up to B1 size.
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Big Fag Press, 2006–2010. RSS Feed. Blog runs on Wordpress & eShop. Layout based on Modern Clix.
