Printjam, artists’ group :

Ronald de Bloeme . Wernher Bouwens . Christoph Ruckhäberle . Thomas Siemon . Edouard Wolton

Today, prints and books published in small editions are considered as original artworks. Printmaking has become a fully grown artistic practice.

In this optics, we work together on experimental projects that take place since january 2014 in the printshop of Thomas Siemon in the Spinnerei in Leipzig.

Our projects are supported by Joop Stoop, printmakers ink and paper.

Printjam

The first project started by printing one original relief print in four or five colours per artist (95x138cm).

In a second time, we started jamming with the plates that each of us had cut for his solo relief print. By mixing the different graphic elements, we created 156 unique Jamprints (95x138cm).

Then we cut up our plates and followed the same jamming idea to create the pages for the book Printjam. The book also contains solo pages that were specially created for the book and it is printed in 300 copies and published by Lubok Verlag.

PJ2

The second project PJ2 started from a collection of 38 collective drawings we made in 2015-16.

On the one hand, each of us choose three different drawings and interpreted them in linocut, translating the different materials from the drawings or focussing on the most interesting aspects of them. These 15 colourful prints are united in the portfolio JP2 (50x70cm).

On the other hand, we scanned the drawings and prepared the images one by one, and each time in a different way, for a book printed from photopolymer plates. For each image, we looked for the best way to get a maximum of information through the use of only three colours: red, bleu and yellow. We reacted to this photomechanical process in a very intuitive way by adding forms and colours. The book PJ2 is printed in 300 copies and published by Lubok Verlag.