/aoife\ BARRETT
PRINT VAN GO is a travelling printmaking studio based in the West of Ireland. The purpose of Print Van Go is to make printmaking more public and accessible to a wider audience by bringing professional printmaking tools, equipment and facilities to the people. Printmaking can be anything that is made in a reproducible format or something that is made on one surface and transferred to another. It offers unique possibilities to create images and art that cannot be achieved in other ways. PRINT VAN GO covers a vast array of techniques and processes from the humble potato print to cyanotypes and screenprinting.
Our purpose is to create and inspire diverse, inclusive and welcoming creative environments foreveryone.
As part of the work for MIDDLE SPACE we have been developing mobile, low-tech printmaking techniques for printing on-the-go. This includes designing a ‘printcase’ - a DIY printmaking kit, complete with a pasta-maker printing press and DIY printmaking workshops.
Through our collaborative printmaking projects and participatory workshops, we aim to facilitate learning, skill sharing and community engagement.
/aoife\ BARRETT is a visual artist and printmaker. Her printmaking practice centres on inclusivity, collaboration and community. She completed an MA in Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking in 2015 from the University of the West of England and recently set up PRINT VAN GO - a travelling print studio based in the West of Ireland. The purpose of PRINT VAN GO is to make printmaking accessible to a wider audience by bringing professional printmaking tools, equipment and facilities to the people.
Her determind attempts to make printmaking more accessible have involved developing mobile, low-tech printmaking techniques for printing on-the-go. This includes designing a ‘printcase’ - a DIY printmaking kit, complete with a pasta-maker printing press and DIY printmaking workshops for MIDDLE SPACE. PRINT VAN GO has allowed her to work on numerous printmaking projects in community and health care settings, including recent project OFFSET an intergenerational printmaking project at Galway University Hospitals which took place in the Paediatric outpatient waiting areas and the Care for the Elderly Units. Alongside documentation of the PRINT VAN GO process and research materials, the exhibition for MIDDLE SPACE shares a small selection of the artworks created by participants during this recent project, OFFSET:
These works interweave diverse voices to celebrate common ground and reciprocity and act as a reminder of the small gestures that can create a sense of belonging and familiarity.
