Acclaimed UK artist Simon Pope invites you to join him in a walk around Woolloomooloo.

Following a short talk at the Big Fag Press in which the artist will introduce his work with walking and dialogue, he will invite Sydney inhabitants to take part in a walk in which they reflect on relationships with the people of the city.

Details:
Saturday April 13th 2013 11am – 4pm
Big Fag Press
First Draft Depot
15-17 Riley Street
Woolloomooloo
Sydney

Please bring sunhat, water bottle, lunch, comfortable walking shoes

The event is free of charge.

Places are limited so registration is essential.
http://ada.net.nz/netwalking/#register

Launch of the Firstdraft Print Edition 2013, featuring Marking their Territory by Joan Ross.

Saturday 9th March 2013, 5 –6pm at Firstdraft Gallery.

Marking their territory reconfigures as its backdrop an 1800’s Australian colonial painting  by John Glover.

This work examines the civilising of nature, imperialism, power relationships and racism, throw-away culture and consumerism.

Ownership, fear, surveillance, boundaries, naming and claiming. Hi Vis flouro, colourfully and gratingly pollutes with its colour coded pretence of control over land. Gainsborough’s colonials spray graffiti like cats marking their territory. JosephBanks-Bank$-Banksi-Banksia.

Joan Ross is interested in the connection and disconnection with nature – born in Glasgow, brought out to Sydney on a boat as a baby. Her work graces many walls in many houses and galleries in Australia and overseas. She is represented by Gallery Barry Keldoulis.

By supporting this project you are allowing Firstdraft, Australia’s longest running Artist Run Space, to continue to support emerging and experimental artists.

This print was produced in the studio of Big Fag Press. It is an offset lithograph made with two plates (fluorescent yellow and sepia) which is then hand-coloured by the artist.

See a high resolution image of it here:

Drawing drawers

I make zines and comic books. I’m not really interested in fine art or gallery work but I really love carefully produced published material and art books. My favorite kinds of artwork can be sent through the mail.


“zines are for try-hards”

I spent the first day or two getting re-acquainted with the press and having my mind blown by the different possibilities that the press made available to us during the residency. We poked our fingers into different bottles of pantone ink, dusty varnishes, metallic goo and we flicked through a stack of paper swatches.

Goo in a can!

I had an idea in my head that I wanted to make an extremely small-edition zine about making comics, which is something that I’ve been doing for the past few years. I like drawing pictures of people drawing pictures and I know a bunch of cartoonists who’d probably like to look at these so I went with that.

The thing that the Fag does best is print big stuff, maps and diagrams. Like, seriously, imagine if they printed this fricken amazing thing? So I decided to try mapping out all the weird and interesting things that go into a comic book project and all of the weird and interesting things that come out of it. In the middle, in between the tedious talks of planning and the even more tedious talks of publishing is this magic moment that I like to think of as a performance when a comic book is being inked. This is the essential cartooning moment if there is one

This bit of paper was on my desk for ages. That’s why it’s coved in dicks and doodles

Once I had a plan and made a bodgy prototype for the zine I sat down and drew. I did nothing but draw in the Firstdraft Art Cave for 11 days straight. I got a sore back.

Drawing is boring

The basketball jocks playing in the court that looms over the First Draft had to watch me doing daggy stretches and silly walks around the car park every half hour. While I was drawing I listened to three audiobooks, all of which are embarrassing so I’m not going to tell you what they were. You should just pretend I was listening to Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace and that there were no swords or zombies or anything.

I finished the drawing on the hottest day of all time in Sydney, and did the prepress in the rainy few days that followed. I got the plates made in Marrickville. Then we got the press rolling.

Plate next to print.

One thing I’ve noticed about printing machines is that the people who know them best treat them like a loving stockman treats his favorite horse. The machine has attitudes and moods and sometimes gets stubborn. Sometimes you need to bring in “the whisperer”. The collective is full of “fag whisperers”.

The “Fag Whisperers” are here depicted. Whispering.

An interesting thing happened when we were printing the brown plate. The ink ran low on the edges of the rollers and was printing noticeably lighter than in the center of the plate. We were about to fix it when I realized that the error worked conceptually with the print. The diffuse activities on the edge of the drawing were printed lighter, while the more focused, concentrated efforts in the center of the drawing remained dark and crisp. It gave the whole picture an additional subtle layer of meaning so I decided to run with it. This is a fun example of the production as a kind of language that lives within the workflow of publishing projects.

Crisp in the middle.

On the last day I made some packaging for the zine but I only got two copies of the thing made before the residency was done. I still have to put aside a long day for folding and assembly, which is the part of zine making that I hate the most. I get through it by reminding myself that after I’ve assembled them all I get to dump them into the mailbox which, of course, is the part of zinemaking that I love the most.

Two zines. Give up.

Here’s a big version of the illustration. Have yourself a good, long perve. X p

working sketch

A print can imply the history of its own making if you know how to read it; colour variation though halftone, spatial depth by overlap, movement by misaligned registration. In most cases a correct image does all these things and erases evidence of itself in the final product. This may sound fairly obvious to someone fluent in design and picture making but to me it is a perplexing sequential process for which I’m missing the instructions. Which perhaps suggests why I am drawn to disciplined compositional work like Joseph Albers’ Homage to the Square series.

For my residency at the BFP I was interested in working with the layered process inherent to printmaking, separating out a print to reveal the order of construction and potentially have the layers interact in unexpected ways. I wanted to defy the flatness and fixity of the outcome but first I needed to get my head around the idiosyncrasies of using the FAG. I often work with layering video in an expanded-cinema-esque method of projecting past over present, however as I quickly learnt, with the press there is less room for variation. The offset process builds an image in layers but its function and efficiency is in producing multiple copies of the same thing. Once I began experimenting with the press I found variables within the process that could evidence slippages between these layers; transparency mediums, paper translucency, shifting the paper or plate and half toning.

experimenting with tracing paper


mock up layering acetate

Rifling through the Big Fag drawers Lucas pulled out some Rubylith and halftone screens, which sent me on an investigation of these outdated photolithographic processes. Pre-digital plate imaging essentially projected a photographic negative onto a light-sensitive coating on the surface of the plate, which was then chemically developed. The halftone screens were used as a kind of tonal filter and a measurement of the colour density; the higher the % dot range the darker the colour. Given the materiality simply handling the screens and superimposing them created interference patterns. This effect is generally to be avoided in print by generating halftone screens at set angles 30° apart, C= 15°, M=75° Y= 0° and K=45°. This allows the colours to overlay in an unobtrusive rose pattern invisible to the naked eye.  If any screen is not perfectly registered the halftone spots clash, the rose pattern will disappear and instead you get distracting interference patterns know as moiré.

original halftone screens demonstrating the moiré effect

As an aesthetic effect it is rather dated, reminiscent of raster graphics or op art but it remains a common error in photography, printing and video, essentially any re-mediation of the dot pattern. The effect is intensified through movement either of the superimposed screens or by the viewer as they move around the image. Holographic-like in effect and quality, here I found a potential for the print medium to infer the third or even fourth dimension.

I decided to print my own halftone screens- allowing them to be both a print of a screen and a screen in itself. Preferring the imperfections of dust and finger marks I chose to scan and enlarge old tone sheets rather than use a digitally generated bitmap. Whilst Louise and I were printing, trying to correct the image on paper before we moved onto acetate, we printed the sheet on top of itself and were rather shocked with the result.

one layer of halftone

two layers of halftones – hero shot

Something that felt so liquid and fluid was captured in ink on paper. The effect was comparable with interlaced video or even tapestry. Even more interesting was how the print appeared through a camera lens (remediated again of course) – as Lucas pointed out, it looks like we are holding a portal to another dimension. Pleased with this we continued to experiment, trialing double printing, double inking and moving the paper to overlay the screens at different angles.

experimenting turning the paper on the press

To work this effect into an image I re-photographed the screen I had created holding it both in front and behind. I had been playing around with this mirroring effect throughout the process, alluding to the page as an object, with a front and back. I had hoped that overlaying these screens within the printmaking process would cause them to interact with each other and zing, creating a moment where the print exceeds itself.

front/back mock up

front plate

finished print!

The finished print: back on paper, front on acetate and installed slightly apart and offset (that’s my Albers description for you). The moiré effect photographs differently each time but you can get a sense of the celluloid-like materiality of the layered acetate. Surprisingly the re-photographed halftone screens don’t interact as strongly as the rest of the image. I haven’t yet concluded if this is an error in my pre-press or perhaps more fittingly a built-in unpredictability. On hindsight perhaps printmaking is less of an antithesis of my video practice, more so a synthesis of composition and chance; a system of archiving layers that speaks of its own history – all things I continue to seek in my work.

Join us at Big Fag Press for a BBQ on Sat February 2nd – to celebrate the conclusion of our Emerging Artists Residency Programme.

Artists Laura Hindmarsh (Tas) and Pat Grant (NSW) will be on hand showing what they’ve made in the Big Fag workshop over the last few weeks.

Pat and Laura have set up shop in the very sexy (and triangular!) First Draft Depot Project Space, and will be installing their work for a special “one-afternoon-only” public event.

If you’re a friend of the Big Fag, come down and join us for a shandy and a BBQ. (STOP PRESS! – the BBQ will now also include vegie sausages!).

If you’ve never been to the Big Fag Press, now’s a great time to come along and see what we’re all about.
We’ll have the machine rolling so you can smell the ink and dream about one day making your own print with us!

Details:
Big Fag Press Emerging Artists Residency Programme BBQ
Sat 2nd February 2013
3pm-5pm (or so)…
First Draft Depot
13-17 Riley Street
Woolloomooloo
(enter via Haig Lane)

For three weeks in January 2013, Big Fag Press will host two emerging artists in its Woolloomooloo workshops. In fact, they both showed up this morning all starry eyed and excited about starting a new project from scratch!

Who are they? Laura Hindmarsh (from Hobart) and Pat Grant (from Wollongong).

Pat Grant churning through prototypes for his Big Fag project…

Laura is known for her video and performance work; Pat is an accomplished comic book maker. Both are committed to interdisciplinary practice, collaboration and experimentation, which makes them ideal for our residency programme.

Laura Hindmarsh developing new ideas on “Day One” of the residency…

The idea is to provide an opportunity to artists who would not normally be able to afford such a luxurious period of time playing around on our machine. It also means that we at the Big Fag extend ourselves, trying out ways of working that are outside of our normal methods.

In Sydney, Pat and Laura be accommodated by Artspace‘s residential studios in Woolloomooloo (10 minutes walk from Big Fag Press). Artspace has been a terrific supporter of Big Fag, ever since we moved to Woolloomooloo a few years ago.

Pat and Laura will work intensively with Big Fag Press personnel. The advantage of having two simultaneous artists in residence is that their projects can cross-pollinate as they evolve. They may, if they choose, even collaborate with each other!

At the end of the residency period, we’ll host an informal launch at the First Draft Depot, so you can see what Laura and Pat have come up with. (The launch will probably take place on the afternoon of February 3rd – we’ll update here shortly). Many thanks to First Draft Gallery for supporting this whole programme!

Meantime – if you’d like to pop down between now and the beginning of February, please get in touch – we’ll put on the kettle for ya!

- – -

The Big Fag Press Emerging Artist Residency Programme is supported by the Australia Council for the Arts’ grant for Artist Run Initiatives.

photo by Louise Anderson

Warning!! Boring Technical Blog Post

Sometimes we store offset litho plates we’ve used, thinking, “maybe we’ll do a reprint of this one”.

Rarely do we do a reprint…

But we’re in the process of getting around to reprinting the popular Mapping Sydney prints of Jane Shadbolt, and also those of Naomi Stead, Katrina Schlunke and Trina Day.

We still have the plates from way back in 2009 when we produced a non-editioned set of these works for a show at UTS.

Yesterday, when we retrieved the Sydney Letters plate, it looked pretty rough. It still had old ink on it, which we couldn’t remove with our normal plate cleaner (“gum washout”), and it looked like it hadn’t been “gummed” before going into storage.

Usually this means that the non-printing areas of the old plate have been exposed to air, and thus corroded, and the ink will be attracted to the raw metal corroded ‘pits’.

When we tried to print it (as part of the process of testing whether we needed to get new plates made), the non-print areas of the plate were indeed ‘dirty’ – and we were getting specks and smudges transferred to the blanket and thus the paper.

Louise and I were resigned to the idea of having to chuck out the plate and get a new one made.

But before we gave up entirely, I googled “lithographic plate corrosion” and found this fabulous name for our problem: Ink Dot Scum…

Ink Dot Scum:

A printing problem found on aluminum plates used in offset lithography characterized by thousands of tiny, inked dots in non-image portions of the plate. Ink dot scum is caused by corrosion of the aluminum, which forms thousands of tiny pits that, when the film of fountain solution wears off, fill with ink.

The corrosion is commonly caused by adding a layer of water to the surface of the plate and allowing it to evaporate slowly, providing enough time for oxidation of the metal surface to occur. It is also found frequently in a band corresponding to the position of a wet dampening roller.

If the scumming is caught in time, and its effects are still localized within a small region of the plate, a solution of phosphoric acid and gum arabic can be used to eliminate it. If it has progressed far, the plate may be unusable.

That sounds pretty much spot on.

I then rummaged around in our chemical cupboard and lo and behold, I found the above bottle. (Who knows where it came from – so many of our printing supplies are “hand-me-downs” from defunct commercial printing presses).

I rang KNAB, the manufacturer, who had cleverly put their phone number on the bottle. Indeed, this stuff was a mixture of phosphoric acid and gum arabic! The very helpful fellow from Knab said it might work, depending on how far gone the corrosion was. Basically, as I understand it, the acid cuts through the ink build-up on the plate, and then a new layer of gum is put over the top. This thin gum-film stops the inking rollers from coming into contact with the corroded pits in the plate.

We tried it (clean soft rag, gently rubbing it in the areas of “Ink Dot Scum”.

It worked! The Ink Dot Scum came off, and didn’t come back.

Here endeth the lesson.

We started with zero knowledge about offset printing in 2004 when we got the Big Fag Press, and it was a steep learning curve. And we still learn something new, pretty much every time we throw the 3-phase switch and our steel monster comes shuddering to life…

Dafi Kuhne is an artist and printmaker in Switzerland – at the heart of Mordor, so to speak, in terms of the FAG corporation.

We’ve been corresponding with Dafi for a few years now. Users of FAG machines tend to look out for each other and enjoy hearing that other FAGs are still trucking along, all around the world.

Dafi uses letterpress rather than offset, and he has created a website to celebrate the letterpress side of the FAG empire.

In his blog entry, which I’ve cut and pasted below, he kindly makes a concession to us, including our FAG OP-104 offset proofing press in his canon of classic heavy metal machines.

Dafi found and used the video below – which shows Dr Greg Turner, a big fan of the Big Fag, helping to print DJ Spooky‘s print Nauru Elegies.

(More info on the print with DJ Spooky here).

Cheers to you and your letterpress children, Dafi, from your lithographic brothers in Sydney.
- – -

Brothers in mind in Sydney, Australia
by Dafi Kuhne.

FAG did not only make letterpress cylinder proof presses but also flatbed offset proof presses. Already in 1972 (the same year they developed the Swiss Proof Presses!) they released their first offset proof press: The ‹FAG Offsetpress 7654›. In 1977 they released the bigger ‹FAG OP-104›, a 4.5 meters long, 3.5 tons heavy flatbed offset proof press in that could fit 70x100cm sheets. The press came with two interchangeable complete inking units including its motors and wash-up units. This inking system made 4 color proofs much easier and faster to handle, since the time consuming washing of there rollers is carried out outside the press. This massive press was a big success and sold to all five continents until the late 80ies.

New quality control tools and the first inkjet proof systems made the use of more expensive offset proofs obsolete and so FAG moved its efforts towards quality control in the aspect of all kinds of densitometers for offset production presses.

The point where this chapter about FAG offset proof presses ends is the point where the story of ‹Big FAG Press› in Sydney begins… In 2004 four artists from Sidney could buy an old FAG OP-104 for the nominal value of $50 at an auction.

They say on their webpage: «In 2004, one unfortunate printer in Sydenham (an inner-Sydney suburb) didn’t see this change coming, and went bust. The liquidation auction was very sad. Nobody wanted his equipment despite the large number of print professionals in the room. Instead, they just picked over the carcasses of his office furniture. Having received a tip off from our local Master Printer, Jens Hausch, Big Fag Press attended the auction and placed the winning (and only) bid on the big beautiful FAG 104 Offset Proof Press. Our bid was fifty dollars.»

You can see in the video that the offset plate is on the right side – laying flat. Then the cylinder (including the watering system and some ink rollers) rolls over the plate to the right side. With this process the rubber blanket on the cylinder picks up the ink. On its way back the rubber blanket applies the ink to the sheet laying flat on the left side. You can also see that the offset plate is not mirrored – of course, it’s offset! And even the guy in the video says: «Its magic!»

Until now, the www.proofpress.ch Webpage is limited to registrations of letterpress proof presses – but maybe soon be opened to studios/artists working with FAG flatbed offset proof presses…

Currently on show at Wollongong City Gallery are three works created on the Big Fag Press, as part of the Green Bans Art Walk project (2011).

They are showing as part of the Wollongong City Gallery’s exhibition commemorating 20 years of its artist in residence programme.

Details of the exhibition, which runs until 18 November, are here.

The two works on the left in the photo above are lithographic prints made from watercolours by Fiona MacDonald, produced after archival photographs of the Green Bans in Sydney in the 1970s.

On the right is an elegant map (front and back both exhibited!) produced collaboratively by Pat Armstrong from Big Fag, and Jo Holder from Cross Arts Projects, entitled Green Bans Civic Walking Map.

Find out more about these prints and the whole Green Bans Art Walk project over here.

…a close-up of Louise’s Ivory Tower Newspaper…

This month we’re very proud of Louise Anderson, our “senior intern” here at the Big Fag.

Louise has been barrelling along to the triumphant conclusion of her honours year in Fashion Design at UTS.

In the process, she has taught herself offset printing, and launched a satirical campaign about the fashion and beauty industries.

In this blog post by Louise, you can follow along as she prints her paste-up “Ivory Tower” newspapers on the Big Fag. The papers are posted around the city, and a QR code embedded on them leads to this website.

Louise’s graduating student show at UTS has set up a pozible campaign to raise money for their event.

You can also follow Louise on Twitter.