Making History .
A Site-Specific Workshop
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Making History .
A Site-Specific Workshop
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Project made possible by funding from the
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College of Arts and Architecture The University of North Carolina at Charlotte 9201 University City Blvd Charlotte, NC 28223-0001 704.687.2000
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From January 19 to January 26, 2009, the College of Arts and Architecture at University of North Carolina at Charlotte hosted Netherlands-based designer and printmaker Harmen Liemburg during an eight-day visiting artist residency . While in residence, Liemburg met with students and faculty, presented a public lecture about his continuing work, launched the travelling exhibition “Ultra Light�, and collaborated with Professor John Ford to direct a two-day intensive printmaking workshop with students of both the School of Architecture and the Department of Art and Art History.
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The Artists:
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Virginia Faircloth Ronna Gardner Brandt Hewitt Kristen Howard Marshall Ling Megan McGuinn Joe Mattox Zac Porter Liz Richardson Sarah Robinson Josh Shope Richard South Matthew Walsh Amber D Watts Charlotte Whitlock
Making History: A Site-Specific Workshop focused on the history of Charlotte, North Carolina, a city originally founded at the intersection of two Native American trading routes. Charlotte is typified by a rich but largely narrative or mythic history, the loss of physical history resulting from the rush to modernization and re-invention as a stronghold in the New South. Workshop participants explored significant themes in the evolution of Charlotte, producing five unique portfolios: “Mythology and City-Making,” “Bar(Code) Charlotte,” “Urban Renewal”: project no. n r-16,” “Industry and Technology,” and “Money is King in the Queen City.” The resulting works of on paper were executed by
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students with limited experience in screen printing. In only two days, the printing teams learned printmaking processes and conceptual approaches, producing earnest work that captures the intensity of their thematic research.
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Images from the Liemburg exhibition “Ultra Light”
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Following are selected works from each student portfolio
Mythology and City-Making Virginia Faircloth, Liz Richardson, Josh Shope Representing Charlotte’s mythic history and midcentury boosterism, these prints use simple graphics from a variety of sources to tell the story of both the pioneers who may (or may not) have declared independence from England in 1775, and the trailblazers who worked to create a new Charlotte in postwar America. The exponential growth of the city in the last sixty years and the story of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence fascinated us and gave us a strong interest in producing these prints.
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Bar (code) Charlotte Brandt Hewitt, Megan McGuinn, Zac Porter Through a process of distortion, Charlotte’s tangible landscapes are reconfigured in order to mimic the sterility and lack of scale in historical rhetoric. The result is a playful “branding” of the city.
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Urban Renewal: Project No. nc r-16 Sarah Robinson, Matthew Walsh, Amber Watts Our group concentration was originally “Changing Demographics.” We focused on the 1960’s redevelopment of “Brooklyn” or modern-day 2nd Ward and the culture of this African-American neighborhood. We took images from a variety of places, events and people, and arranged them to push the edges of the pages —relating to the tension brought on by the destruction of the neighborhood. The extreme color changes of the prints resemble the drastic changes of the neighborhood from the early 1900’s to present day.
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Industry and Technology Ronna Gardner, Joe Mattox, Charlotte Whitlock The subject of our prints is industry and technology, with specific respect to the cotton mills of the North Davidson district of Charlotte. Our prints attempt to juxtapose many of the grave themes associated with the mills, such as child labor, pollution and their decay over time, against the propaganda that was used to advertise the industry at that time.
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Money is King in the Queen City Richard South, Kristen Howard, Marshall Ling Charlotte, North Carolina is widely known as one of our nation’s banking powerhouses, but what few people know is that Charlotte’s roots in the money run deep . . . over 300 ft. deep in fact. Charlotte was first put on the map during the early 1830’s when the first gold rush to hit the U.S. began here in the Queen City. After the government recognized the amount of gold available here, they placed a mint in our up-town city, and thus began the banking tradition. Now standing over 870 ft. tall in the heart of uptown Charlotte, is the largest bank in America —The Bank of America.
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ISLA © 2009
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