Watercolor

“A Print Festival? What’s that, some kind of weird fetish event?”

LPF2012, running at The Leeds Gallery, was an intelligently curated programme of events running over four days bringing together small printers, designers and makers, to celebrate print media. It was an exciting and thought-provoking weekend, and, hopefully the first of many. The gallery, a new commercial art space, is sited in a growing cultural quarter which includes Cafe 164, The West Yorkshire Playhouse, Duke Street Studios, and ethical music venue Wharf Chambers, in the Lower Kirkgate area. For us the weekend started with Friday night’s opening party. Chris Lestaret, whose live demo stall was set up under Mick Marston’s gory silk-screened images of kittens in a bathtub beheading other kittens with a saw, was helping all-comers get stuck into making their own lino cuttings, and we were at the next table with our 8x5 Adana printing press. Both stalls were incredibly popular. Drinks sloshed around in glasses while members of the increasingly boozy crowd did their best to run our press one-handed (not recommended, by the way). “It’s like getting a present!” one woman said joyfully, as she lifted her “I Printed This!” card out of the machine.

Sunday was a more relaxed affair with talks from two designers and a printer. Generation Press from Brighton showed how it’s possible to run an ecologically-sound printing business, whilst producing a range of high-quality printed items, bringing to mind our friends at Leeds’ Footprint Workers Co-op. Later Si Scott explained how he produces his intricate hand-drawn type treatments, (which are nothing short of mindblowing). Anthony Burrill’s witty work is produced through a variety of different media, from the humble photocopier to giant letterpress wood blocks. His screenprinted ‘oil and water do not mix’ poster was printed using actual oil from the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill – an example of how a simple poster and a pro-active process can raise awareness of global issues.

The words “Print’s not Dead” were buzzing around all weekend, especially at Saturday’s print fair. A variety of stalls showed the wide-ranging possibilities of print, from cute typewriter drawings to representations of time and space in book form. In one corner, the Salford Zine Library stall showed what happens when people print for love. Curator Craig John Barr had brought zines covering subjects from the effect of social networking on mental health, to menstruation, to bike riding, showing the truly egalitarian nature of this form of publishing.

If LPF2012 did one thing, it showed that print is still very much alive and constantly being redefined and reused in ever exciting ways. From five year old kids printing on an ‘outmoded’ Adana letterpress to retired compositors re-visiting the changes they’ve witnessed in the printing industry, LPF2012 put smiles on people’s faces and, we’d like to think, inspired them into picking up the ‘printing glove’ to produce their own printed matter. Hats off to the LPF2012 team for taking the first step in what we hope will be an ongoing celebration of creativity for the region.

The Print Project, Bradford www.theprintproject.co.uk

Photographs: Ricky Adam www.rickyadamphoto.com

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www.leedsprintfestival.com