Dirty Hands Printmakers

Dirty Hand Printmakers formed in 2007 at COFA as a small group of students with the aim of continuing to exhibit together and exploring the possibilities of printmaking in contemprorary art practice. The result of this ambitious project has been multiple exhibitions across Sydney that push printmaking to its limits.

For Dirty Hands’ third group exhibition, Torn Edges, the collaborative printmaking co-operative have addressed the physicality of their chosen material - the deckled (or torn) edge commonly seen in fine art printmaking – and utilise the term as a metonym for the testing of boundaries that characterises each of their individual practices. Torn Edges showcases a wide variety of printmaking practices commonly (and not so commonly) used today. Torn Edges will see prints across the walls, floors and ceilings of Hardware Gallery for three weeks in June and July.
In addressing the notion of the “edge”, Dirty Hands simultaneously celebrate and critique both the supposed ‘limitations’ and the infinite possibilities of their chosen medium. They cite the ubiquity of printed media in contemporary life, and utilise this as a framework from which to speak about issues ranging from colonisation, familial and cultural relations, contemporary nostalgia, as well as more visceral ideas concerning printmaking’s vital associations with texture and composition.
Torn Edges will be opened by Euan Macloed on Tuesday 22 June from 6-8pm"Torn Edges"