Dynamic Lifting was a project developed by Nat Thomas and Kylie Wilkinson during a Marrickville Council Artist Residency in January 2010. During the project, Big Fag Press worked with Nat and Kylie to develop a print which embodied their processes of interaction with members of the local community – they gathered dozens of handwritten gardening tips, and incorporated them into this wonderful 2 colour design. The print was given away as a thank you to those who helped out on their project. We also produced a limited edition, signed and numbered by the artists, on gorgeous acid free paper.

Here’s some more info about the whole project, sent through from Nat and Kylie:

ABOUT THE PROJECT
The starting point for this research was a desire to see how people are creating ways to grow their own food in the urban centres of Sydney (around Marrickville) and to visit gardens where people are attempting to grow food collectively.

The context for this work is the growing awareness of the unsustainable and unethical commercial food industry practices around issues to do with transport, use of fertilizers and waste.

There is a growing interest for people to regain some level of control over how they live and what they eat, and also to combat the rising costs of buying fresh food.

We enjoyed talking about how to grow food. Old knowledge, such as the ways people who grew up on farms learnt from their parents in the 1930s – 50s (in Australia and various countries across Europe and Asia) right through to the more contemporary approaches, informed by ideas such as permaculture principles to food production. Also the inventive rig-ups and schemes developed to make growing food possible despite very limited space.

WHAT WE DID
At the beginning of January, we organised an article in several local newspapers to encourage people to contact us to show us their gardens.

We also contacted several gardening collectives operating in the area and discussed how they approach planting, space and access, core philosophies around gardening practices and who gets to eat the produce.

For much of the time, we also walked the streets and knocked on people’s doors, peeked over fences and held impromptu interviews with people whose gardens showed some sign of effort towards producing food.

We visited permaculture educators and architectural and legal innovators engaging with their own communities to inspire change and encourage action on a grass roots level.

We developed several works during this time, and held a closing event to display the work and host the people we had met during the project, on January 26th (Australia Day) at the residency apartment of the Petersham Town Hall. This event was attended by about fifty local people, was extremely upbeat and provided an opportunity for people to meet folks with different backgrounds who were also interested in urban food production.

MAKING A PRINT ON THE BIG FAG PRESS

A limited edition poster was printed on the famous Sydney BIG FAG proof press in collaboration with the Big Fag Collective. The poster is a compilation of many of the fantastic gardening tips collected during the meetings with gardeners.

Printed on a very large scale, the poster also shows an image of an urban block from the rear. A fig tree bursts through a fence and behind the tree in a back lane sits an empty and abandoned shopping trolley and old tank like car.

Posters were given to people the artists met and worked with during the residency. A pile was also delivered to Council to be distributed to local schools through its environment and sustainability programs.

OUR BIG BANNER
A large pre-loved Australian Flag, purchased at Reverse Garbage was collaged into a banner. Images to do with compost, growth and renewal combined with the confusion of advertising. The banner was a sort of call to arms or perhaps an invitation to reconsider place in terms of basic issues to do with survival and food production.

THE SLIDESHOW
We also produced a slideshow of 180 images of the many gardens and people that they met with during this time. This series of images also documents the process of looking and walking around Marrickville, a place initially unknown to the artists. It also documents the success and limitations of groups trying to grow food collectively, how large lawns and the tiny flourishing front yards exist in tandem. The slideshow is not so much a survey of perfect permaculture gardens but a series of snapshots representing many different levels of engagement with the dirt close to home and the potential of growing things to eat. The slideshow also documents the poster printing process and sewing the banner.

…AND A VIDEO TOO…
During January Nat and Kylie witnessed the many dance events that take place in the Petersham Town Hall. Daily the space is used for different groups in the community to meet and dance. Nat and Kylie developed a short video that documents several couples moving through the space sometimes with elegance and at other times with less ease trying to negotiate dancing partners or the complexity of traditional dance routines. A meditation on mortality and fragility.

Click on the image to enlarge
cheerio

[ps - more Tom Nicholson images - printing process here.]

Hot off the Press (and just in time for Christmas), we’ve done a gorgeous new Big Fag Press print in 2 glorious colours.

The print shows the press being moved by crane – to commemorate the move to our new-improved home in Woolloomooloo (the big move will happen in early 2010).

It’s a limited edition of only 75, numbered and specially embossed with the Big Fag logo… and were offering exclusively to our 75 most valuable Big Fag friends!

The print is about 56 x 76cm on acid free cotton rag paper with a really nice decal edge.

The print sales will be a fundraiser to pay for the crane to move it to Woolloomooloo! (All very self referential, we know).

How much?
Donate your weight or more (in kilograms)!

IF you take this “once in a lifetime” offer you will receive a BONUS super-glossy gold embossed certificate signed by us Big Fag folks, commemorating your purchase as one heckuva historic donation towards the cost of moving our 4 tonne monster to its new home!

You can see the bonus certificates here (not yet cut):

So! Are you into it? Jump in quick before they run out!

[update - first edition now sold out! Thanks everyone! Head over to the Big Fag Press Crane Print page to find out if a new edition is available...]

- – ps – -
a few bonus images for you

Our new BIG FAG embossing.

Our beautiful acid-free rag paper.

We had an exciting week at BFP as we printed up some wonderful maps for an exhibition at UTS. The show is called Mapping Sydney. We printed maps by Jane Shadbolt, Kate Sweetapple, and Naomi Stead+Katrina Schlunke+Trina Day – all on nice archival paper – and we were delighted with the results.

Here’s some more info on the show.

The above video (thanks Jessie!) shows Lucas and Kate printing Jane’s amazing experiential map of the inner-west. It’s a two colour job with built areas (and green parks) completely chock-filled with text (18000 words on one sheet of paper!) and roads blank.

Here’s another shot of Jane’s map:

Kate’s map is a wonderful poetic (and odd) geo-locating of all the folks in Sydney who have bird-related surnames. She got her info from the white pages. Here’s an image of her map:

More photos here of this print run… More to come: images of Naomi+Katrina+Trina’s work…

ps – here’s an article in the Sydney Morning Herald about the project…

A month or so ago I visited the Melbourne Museum of Printing. This terrific letterpress emporium is a “working museum” – a really interesting concept – a kind of techno-heritage project, where it is essential to keep the machines rolling in order to understand them properly. A non-functioning printing press is much less educational than one where you can make up your own poster!

Warren from the Narrows took me down there. He helped me make a great die-cast letter block (not sure of correct terminology) of the Big Fag Press (see the photo below).

Now, the museum is in danger of going belly up. Due to its generous practice of saving old machines, the 5 warehouses of great stuff now cost more money in rent than can be afforded. So a gang of young print enthusiasts, including Warren, got together to try and save the museum itself. They had a fundraising day last Sunday, where 22 artists (including me) were invited to make a print on the letterpress machines. These were limited-editioned and sold to make some rent-cash.

You can see some of the prints over here. Contact the MMOP via that website if you’d like to buy one. Hopefully some detailed photos will go up soon so you know what you’re splashing out on!

cheers
Lucas from BFP

ps – check out the MMOP’s old website – I think it is a stunning analogous “site” – not dissimilar to the warehouses full of old machines. Treasures to be found, if you are willing to rummage!

[Update, June 2010: this poster/brochure is now sold out. We will advise when a new edition is printed].

For all you online-buying fanatics out there, you can now order BIG FAG merch right here! After our first edition of bright green/black/silver Big Fag Press Brochure-Posters sold out in a trice, we did a second edition of 120 (individually numbered) in hot pink/black/silver.

Click here to see the “poster” side of the print, featuring the amazing silver and black image of the press itself, mounted by our mascot, Sydney’s biggest fag, Faggot Rooster…

…and the photo above shows the “brochure” side complete with all the details of the press, its history, how to get involved, and the tech specs if you’d like to prepare an image for the machine… Click here to see each page of the brochure in detail.

Get ‘em while they’re hot, folks! You can order them in “natty folded brochure style” in a flat pack envelope, or “pristine rolled poster style” in a tube…

Only AUD$30.00 plus postage to wherever you are in the world.

email us: info@bigfagpress.org to order one. Tell us where you are in the world, whether you want rolled or folded, and we will tell you how much to pay us…

…here are deposit details:

Encompass Credit Union
acc name: Fag Press
acc # 82888
bsb: 802184

[This brochure/poster was produced thanks to a NAVA Marketing Grant]…

It also features news on the exciting new addition to the family, the Fagette, the BFP’s little sister.

Vancouver artist Geoffrey Farmer has just printed up a limited edition of poster prints on the Big Fag Press, entitled “Cockatoo Clock”.

It’s a poster for a sort of “fictional play” which happens (or maybe doesn’t happen) within the wall cavities of the Museum of Contermporary Art. The poster will be part of an installation at the MCA for the 2008 Sydney Biennale.

This was a 2 colour print, solid yellow with solid black overprinting, and a little cockatoo image in the bottom right hand corner. We printed an edition on fabriano paper, and a further small set of prints were done on heavy gloss coated stock.

See some more images of the print in progress, and the finished product…

Back in 2004, when Mickie went to auction to bid on the Big Fag Press, no-one else wanted it and so we got it for a song! One ole timer printing fella shuffled over to him, sized him up, and said “I guess we’re gonna see your handy work on telegraph poles around town then, eh?”

At the time, we would have said yes. But strangely, this poster by James Dodds is the first that has been designed specifically with poles in mind. Here he is, in the photo above, showing the print that he produced on the press (later to be guillotined in half of course). Note its three colour design: two colours off metal plates, and the third colour produced using hand-cut “ruby”, thus keeping the cost down! The gap at the bottom of the poster is for him to insert info about his upcoming events, whatever they might be, using a fat marker pen.

Notice the scratches on the right hand poster James is holding up? Well, in the process of handling the fragile metal plate, James put a scratch on it. Naturally that small scratch shows up in the print. So rather than throw in the towel, or a tantrum, he went along with it, using sandpaper to enhance the scratch effect and make it part of his overall design.

1. If you are working with scanned images, scan them at the highest resolution. The images should be at at least 300dpi at the final size they will be printed. That is, if the original image is 10cm high, but you are intending to print it at 20cm high, then you should scan it at 600dpi minimum.

2. If your print is more than one colour, perform the colour separations on the image. Follow the tutorial linked here.

3. Prepare your print in Illustrator or Quark or similar programme, if you need to add text or vector graphics or combine images etc. Set the document up as CMYK not RGB. Set the size of the document – the maximum printable area of the press is 1000X700mm – but if you can, make it smaller. This size is slightly larger than A1. Remember to consider what paper you will be printing on. Is the available paper at a corresponding size to your print image?

4. Export the file to a PDF – if your PDF is in CMYK, that’s fine. The platemaker will divide the CMYK image into four plates (or fewer plates if there are less than 4 colours).

5. If you are having troubles, email info@bigfagpress.org making sure you leave plenty of time for troubleshooting before your deadline.

[NB: Mickie has made some addenda below in the comments!]