It was too windy to safely unfurl an umbrella, 2016 Crossing to Kowloon, 2016
I am a printmaker and artist educator from Toronto, Canada. I studied Fine Art, History of Art and Classics in my undergrad in Canada, and Fine Art Media in my masters degree at the Slade School of Fine Art. I love lithography, etching and screenprinting, but I’m not very good at colours. I am a technician, but also a student!, and am taking an MA in Academic Practice, writing about inclusive pedagogy in technical teaching design.
My work explores the architecture and pattern of memory, with especial attention to relationships between urban landscapes, migration, and empire. Print is magic, good and bad. It is transformative, living, and powerful. Printmaking can be immersive and public, or intimate and private, inclusive or biased. It doesn’t need to be plugged in, switched on, or updated to have impact.
Top 5 tips
1. Save all your paper – there is a ton of paper in our homes, including junk mail, leaflets, packaging, and catalogues. Use this paper to proof your prints, cut up as stencils, make book dummies, prototype designs.
2. Don’t constantly compare your work to others, especially on Instagram – people rarely show their mistakes, trials and complete failures but these are so important to your making journey!
3. Spend time designing your workflow. Technicians spend ages working out the layout of their workshops – where to ink, where to clean, where to dry, where to store. It’s worth taking a look at your space, no matter how small, and thinking about how you will want to work.
4. Ask lots of questions. Someone out there will have the answer. Use our forum, email us, ask your tutor, ask ask ask. There are no secrets to printmaking
5. Document everything. The good, the bad, the ugly, the who, the why, the how. We want to learn from you, too.
Top 3 websites for students
Handprinted – a UK-based supplier and resource for printing at home or continuing your practice after University
https://handprinted.co.uk/
Museum of Modern Art – New York – best collection of art terms, explained with real examples and great infographics.
https://www.moma.org/collection/terms/
Counterpoint Arts – a UK-based arts charity supporting refugees and migrant artists, and their families. To give context and meaning to the things we do and make.
https://counterpointsarts.org.uk/
Contact information
Instagram: @yuenlingchiu