Among the many fun things Boris and I did on the weekend was to visit the Big Print Project happening in the courtyard of Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden. It’s an event to highlight printmaking on a large scale, with 4′ x 8′ woodblocks carved by professional artists, and the work printed by a steamroller. Yes, you read that right.
We dropped by on Sunday morning in time to see the inking and printing process for the woodblock carved by my friend, Connie Sabo. It was a group effort to get the entire thing properly saturated with ink. I shot the video below during the first plate inking.
The handy dandy steamroller waiting to make big prints.
Laying down the first piece of fabric for printing. There were several layers of cloth and a piece of wood added for the roller to go over.
Pulling back the first piece of cloth printed with the steamroller. It looks terrific
It was a crowd pleasing event, and a spectacular introduction for people not familiar with printmaking.
There is an exhibit of the large prints later in the month at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum in Chinatown, August 19th to 21st, 10am to 5:30pm.