My project, preliminarily titled “Material Memory”, is rooted in printmaking, specifically the woodcut. I locate it at the triple intersection of printmaking, materialism and personal memory as viewed through a hauntological lens. Print has long been used as a metaphorical device to help conceptualise memory by likening memories to impressions or imprints left by an event on the mind’s cognitive surface. The analogical parallels are not only linguistic but are also rooted in material and process. While the vernacular metaphor of memory as an impression is engaging in its simplicity, it is also reductive and misleading. I propose that using a holistic approach to printmaking that extends beyond the image and includes material and process as essential meaning-forming aspects, new visual analogies can be generated that speak about personal memory in ways where written or spoken language fails. Additionally I consider the affective and hautological properties of personal memory and nostalgia. This project focuses on experimental practical methodologies with materiality and process at their heart. The intention is to produce artwork that responds to my theoretical concerns with the phantoms of personal memory and nostalgia through the practice of woodcuts. In addition to Printmaking Theory, my research draws on theories such as Materialism, Photography Theory, Intersubjective Memory and Hauntology, as well as on the work of several other artists to establish context.
Oliver Hambsch is a German / South African artist who grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. I studied at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, where I completed my MFA in 2022. In October 2023 I started work as a research fellow at Oslo National Academy of the Arts, in the Art and Carft Graphics department to conduct research in the field of printmaking. My research is primarily concerned with the materiality of print as a means of creating analogies with which to investigate greater conceptual issues, particularly the affects of personal memory. My practice is varied and ranges from traditional to experimental printmaking, to video and sound.
In this presentation I will introduce my woodcut practice and how I disentangle it in order to draw out the meaning inherent in its material and process. I will present experimental methods based on feedback loops, remediation and recontextualisation that are designed to expose, extract, and magnify certain information which can be reflected upon. As examples I will show some artworks that have been generated through such methods, which includes a collaborative experimental musical perfromance that is still in the early stages of development. The research I present is still relatively underdeveloped, and thus my presentation will focus on the challenges, questions and obstacles I am currently facing.