The Politics of Image Making Conference & Workshops
Copenhagen, 12th to the 17th July 2016
Speakers and Leaders:
Jakob Boeskov – Artist & Illustrator – Speaker – Iceland/Denmark
Lawrence Zeegen – Academic and Educator – Speaker – United Kingdom
Andreas Wellnitz – Editor – Speaker – Germany
Scott King – Fine Artist – Workshop Leader – United Kingdom
George Butler – Artist – Speaker – United Kingdom
Mathew Sawyer – Artist and Writer – Workshop Leader – United Kingdom
Landfill Editions/Hugh Frost – Publisher – Speaker – United Kingdom
Rob ‘Supermundane’ Lowe – Graphic Artist – Workshop Leader – United Kingdom
Kate Gibb – Screenprint Artist – Workshop Leader – United Kingdom
Hvass and Hannibal – Illustrators – Speakers – Denmark
Bob Linney / Health Images – Social Image Collaborator – Workshop Leader – United Kingdom
Michael Rytz – Illustration Artist – Workshop Leader – Denmark
Liz McQuiston – author of ‘Graphic Agitation’ – Speaker – United Kingdom
Radical Attic LCC – Curator Group – United Kingdom, Greece
Emma Talbot – Artist – United Kingdom
David Foldvari – Illustrator – United Kingdom
Simon Vaeth – Illustrator – Denmark
P.O.I.M. – What is it?
There are so many motivations to make an image and so many methods that it would be impossible to cover all types of image production in any meaningful and interesting way at a short conference. We want to bring together a group of people to discuss the production and meaning of graphic art considering the influence of such tropes as activism, social change, political protest and not least the expression of the personal experience as a political one.
There is a vast industry of image making in the graphic arts where the person making the image is working to a brief, to earn money and satisfy a client. There are plenty of professional forums and conferences for that where practitioners discuss how to market and package themselves, how to find clients, how to maintain a style. And this is essentially all in the service of advertising and commerce. Many illustrators and graphic artists would not be working today if it were not for this process.
P.O.I.M.’s purpose is not to dismiss this process, but instead to provide a critical counterpoint.
We want to bring together artists, editors and academics who have interesting perspectives on how the political is an intrinsic and perhaps neglected field when we consider how we make images.
It is my belief that a vast proportion of the energy that drives people to become graphic artists initially – even when ostensibly their prime actions are commercial – comes from deeper urges to comment on society, express ideas and expose truths unseen.
What Will Happen At P.O.I.M.?
In short, talks and workshops over 6 days.
Workshops will hopefully be primarily aimed at advanced practitioners and will involve fast moving real life engagement with audiences within the general public through field work. Workshops will be nominally 3 days long as so it will be important to move fast and reconfigure one’s purpose during the process for maximum development and experience. Workshop leaders will have multi-layered plans to take workshop participants on a ‘journey’ real or symbolic through their engagement with their selves and the relationship between that self and their perceived world in a new and ‘strange making’ series of challenges and revelationary processes. The aim would be to avoid desk work entirely.
Biographies of confirmed participants:
Liz McQuiston
Academic, Author and Curator – Speaker
has authored a substantial number of books on graphic design related subjects – her best known mix design and politics, including Graphic Agitation 1 and 2, Suffragettes to She-Devils and Women in Design. She was Head of Department of Graphic Art and Design at the Royal College of Art. She lectures internationally, and curated an exhibition on UK political graphics for the British Council entitled Upfront and Personal which toured South Korea, South Africa, Botswana, Kenya and Namibia. Liz’ qualifications include Royal College of Art, MA(RCA) in Graphic Design.
www.ravensbourne.ac.uk/staff/liz-mcquiston/
Jakob Boeskov
Conceptual Artist & Illustrator – Speaker
His work has been shown in museums such as New Museum and Stedelijk Museum and he had a solo show at Denmark’s State Art Museum. Boeskov’s work includes drawings, paintings, video and film. His work has been described as humorous, poetic and political. Jakob Boeskov lives and works in New York
Lawrence Zeegen
Academic and Educator – Speaker
As the Dean of the School of Design at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, Lawrence leads further education, undergraduate and postgraduate courses and research in advertising design, animation, graphic communication design, interactive design, illustration and visual media and typographic design. Lives and works in London.
www.zeegen.com
Andreas Wellnitz
Editor – Speaker
Andreas Wellnitz is a Photography Consultant living and working in Berlin, Germany. His studio was founded in 2009. With his team Andreas produces magazines, fashion stories, campaigns and books. The studio mainly focusses on image research, magazine developement and photo and illustration productions.
www.andreaswellnitz.com
Scott King
Fine Artist – Workshop Leader
Past experiences include Art Director of i-D and Creative Director of Sleazenation magazines, for which he was awarded ‘Best Cover’ and ‘Best Designed Feature of the Year’ prizes. King occasionally produces work under the banner ‘CRASH!’ with writer and historian Matt Worley. King’s work has been exhibited widely in London, New York and European galleries including the ICA, KW Berlin, Portikus, White Columns, Kunstverein Munich and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lives and works in London
www.scottking.co.uk
Mathew Sawyer
Artist and Writer – Workshop Leader
Sawyer studied at Chelsea College of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art in London.
Lives and works in London. His pithy and dry observations on his own life amount to a ‘politics of the personal experience’.
www.mathewsawyer.com
Landfill Editions/Hugh Frost
Publisher – Speaker
Frost runs Landfill Editions – a publishing project currently based in London and Stockholm releasing artist’s books, comics, zines, prints, short fiction and science-fact since 2009. Lives and works in London.
www.landfilleditions.com
Rob ‘Supermundane’ Lowe
Graphic Artist – Workshop Leader
Artist, graphic designer, typographer, illustrator, educator and writer with over 15 years’ experience in the creative industry. His signature mesmeric drawings have been published and exhibited worldwide. He has been responsible for designing some of the most groundbreaking independent magazines of the last decade. Lives and works in London.
www.supermundane.com
Kate Gibb
Screenprint Artist – Workshop Leader
She has worked as a printmaker and illustrator for over fifteen years from a makeshift print studio in Paddington. Commercially she is renowned for her music-related sleeve artwork, most notably for a long standing relationship with the band The Chemical Brothers. Non-commercially she continues to explore the silk-screen process and its tactile nature.
www.kategibb.co.uk
Hvass and Hannibal
Illustrators – Speakers
Hvass&Hannibal is a multi-disciplinary arts and design studio based in Copenhagen. Since 2006, its founders, Nan Na Hvass & Sofie Hannibal have worked in close collaborative partnership with illustrative and conceptual design in a number of different fields for numerous clients in Europe, Asia and the US.
www.hvasshannibal.dk
Bob Linney
Health Images – Social Image Collaborator – Speaker
Bob Linney is a graphic artist who works in screen print and ink for arts organisations, community groups and charities. His decoration of the Coin Street area of South Bank in London in renowned, He is also an experienced facilitator at visual aids and arts workshops and wrote a definitive book on ‘Aid Art Production’: ‘People, Pictures and Power – People Centred Visual Aids for Development’. Lives and works in the UK.
www.healthimages.co.uk
Michael Rytz
Illustration Artist – Speaker
Michael has a hugely complex and intricate body of personal illustration work which he creates in books and on canvas and wood. He shows his work at art expos, through mail-art, in zines and as part of collaborative projects. Has contributed to the Danish comic anthology 2006 -blæk- and has exhibited in Denmark, Belgium, Canada and England
Lives and works in Copenhagen.
George Butler
Illustrator – Speaker
George Butler is an artist and illustrator specialising in travel, conflict reporting and current affairs. His drawings, done in situ are in pen, ink and watercolour. Recently he has started teaching and has also given talks on his work at The Frontline Club, Asia House and a TEDX talk at Warwick University. He has won the Editorial and Overall award for illustration at the V&A Illustration Awards and an International Media Award in May 2013.
www.georgebutler.org
David Foldvari
Illustrator & Artist – Speaker
Born in Budapest, Hungary, David has lived in the UK for the last 20 years. His work often tackles issues of alienation, identity and belonging, formed by a preoccupation with his eastern European roots, combined with his experience of growing up in the UK. David’s work is bold, darkly humorous and often political in tone, his considered and energetic draftsmanship having led to a prolific output both personally and commercially.
www.davidfoldvari.co.uk
Emma Talbot
Artist – Speaker
Emma creates semi-narrative works which seem to express personal confinement and the presence of metaphorical external controls on freedom. Mixed with a sense of nostalgia and commentary about our relationship to places and objects she uses drawing to express a ‘politics of the private space’. Emma studied at the Royal College of Art in London and has shown widely since in the UK. She also teaches at Central St Martins college.
www.emmatalbot.org.uk
Simon Vaeth
Illustrator – Speaker
Simon is a Danish artist and illustrator based in Copenhagen. He studied at Kolding Design School in Denmark. He uses drawing and linocut printing and has recently made a series of illustrations on the subject of the refugee crisis for various Danish publications including VisAvis. He draws on European folklore and classical techniques to relate modern stories and issues to classical observations about the plight of man.
www.simonvaeth.dk
