Impressions

Work by artists and printmakers from Cape Town and the surrounding townships. The works include linocuts, lithographs, silkscreen prints and other multi-disciplinary art works, featuring powerful socio-political images from the last decade of South African history.

One section of the exhibition will feature the celebrated artist/printmaker Billy Mandindi (1967-2005) who played a prominent part in the South African resistance art movement.

The exhibition brings together for the first time the work of the Hard Ground Printmakers, a workshop established in 1989 by Jonathan Comerford, a well-known South African artist and printmaker. The studio was called 'Hard Ground' to reflect the difficulty independent artists experienced in gaining access to printmaking presses, most of which were situated in educational institutions or in private studios. The initial purpose of the workshop was to enable Jonathan and fellow artists from diverse communities to exchange ideas, information, and technical knowledge and have access to an equipped printmaking studio.

The idea was generated through a partnership between the London College of Communication and Cape Peninsula University of Technology. The exhibition marks the start of a project to develop enterprise and innovation in design and the visual arts in both institutions.

A creative writing project has also been developed involving both colleges that will result in a book publication based on the Billy Mandindi portfolio.