Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of the West of England, Bristol
Drawing with fire: an exhibition of laser cutting by book and paper artists
This touring exhibition was the principal output of an AHRC-funded project (March-October 2010) investigating the potential of laser cutting technology in developing artists’ books and paper-based creative practices in the context of wider debates about the adoption of industry-led digital manufacturing technologies by the arts, craft and design communities that included Richard Sennett’s seminal The Craftsman (2008) and several exhibitions notably The Power of Making (V&A, 2011).
The research consisted of surveying the field of laser-cut paper-based artwork, producing a series of creative laser cutting guides, hosting a one-day symposium (15 September 2010), creating a touring exhibition and publishing a journal article in The Blue Notebook, vol. 5. no. 2 (April 2011) that reflected on the processes by which Sowden worked with the artists to explain, explore and develop the possibilities offered by laser cutting alongside handcrafting methods. The exhibition, curated by Sowden, consisted of four new works, artists’ books by Sowden, Su Blackwell and two by Mette-Sofie D. Ambeck, designed as case studies demonstrating the artistic possibilities of this technology within paper-based creative practice. The venues were selected as academic and creative hubs where debate and discussion about new practice could be generated: UWE (September 2011) and Northumbria University School of Design, as part of the International Print Biennale (November 2011).
Sowden was invited (with Sarah Bodman) to stage a pop-up show of the exhibition and workshops at the AKI/Art EZ Academy of Art in Enschede, Netherlands in January 2011. He presented a paper about the project at the Doverrode Book Arts Festival, Denmark (May 2010) and the Impact 7 conference International Multi-Disciplinary Print-Making, Monash University, Melbourne (September 2011).
Several of the works were shown subsequently, including Sowden’s, at the Paper Cooperative exhibition at Spacex, Exeter (August-September 2011).
