In addition to unveiling the twinned prints,“Our Vanities Differ”, Jessica Caponigro also led a workshop on the process she used to create them. Spudnik brought in their portable press, and Jessica took us through the paces. A plexiglass printer functions like a sheet sent under a giant rolling pin. Start with a drawing of ink on paper, thin wood, or rubber stamp board, sandwich it with another sheet of paper beneath the plexiglass, and send it through by cranking the wheel. Every passing print will degrade a bit as the ink gets used up, but you can do this multiple times for different effects.
Jessica had done this with her drawings hundreds of times to create “Our Vanities Differ”. Of course, her work is much finer-tuned than what we generated that day, but the method is more or less the same. This workshop got to the heart of Teaching Artists Month at Nomadic, as it democratized the process used to make great Art while being able to look at it at the same time. From the other hands-on workshops to this Monoprint session, there was always something new to learn by example.
We’ll close up our week with Spudnik next time for the Printer’s Panel, and then dig into the last clutch of entries of this tour. There’s only about a baker’s dozen left, so thanks for sticking it out! Some outstanding stuff still to come!
Faiz
Jessica Caponigro
Website: http://www.jessicacaponigro.com/
Bio: In their interdisciplinary practice, Jessica Caponigro blends accessible and egalitarian concepts with ritual and performance to explore ideas of restriction and reproduction through writing, performance, and the creation of multiples. Caponigro’s research includes how those in power have used storytelling and reproducible media to control history, and how marginalized communities have used independent publishing to tell their own stories and fight back against oppressive systems.
Before its dissolution in 2017, Caponigro was a founding member of the non-anonymous W.I.T.C.H. Chicago. Caponigro frequently facilitates workshops and speaks on panels, recently at Harvard University, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Emerson College, the University of Kentucky, Oberlin College, and NYU Florence. They have facilitated numerous participatory performances, recently at Spaceus: Harvard Square, the Cincinnati Art Book Fair, the Future in Minneapolis, and in Boston Common. Caponigro has attended residencies in Estonia, Sicily, and the United States, including Zygote Press, ACRE, the Wassaic Project, and the Women’s Studio Workshop. In addition to solo exhibitions in Chicago and Baltimore, Caponigro’s work has been included in two-person and group exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center, Beverly Art Center, the Highland Park Art Center, the Chicago Artist Coalition, and the Nemeth Art Center.
Caponigro currently lives and works on occupied Massachusett and Wampanoag land, where they operate Snake Hair Press, an independent publisher of zines and multiples.
