Recently, the David Krut Workshop hosted a special workshop in collaboration with Standard Bank and Dr Same Mdluli as part of their Women’s Month celebrations and in support of Banyana Banyana, South Africa’s national women’s football team. The initiative formed part of a broader celebration of the power, resilience, courage and limitless potential of women.
As part of the project, Dr Mdluli invited Standard Bank’s women employees to write letters to their younger or future selves, reflecting on the lessons that have shaped them, the challenges they have overcome, and the dreams and hopes that continue to guide them. From these submissions, fifteen participants were selected to attend an exclusive creative workshop at the David Krut Workshop, where they transformed elements of their letters into visual representations through the medium of linocut.
For the selected group of professionals, the workshop offered a welcome departure from the demands and routines of their day-to-day working lives. For all fifteen participants, it was also their first experience of making a work of art.
Dressed in blue aprons bearing the Standard Bank logo and armed with ink brayers, the group gathered to listen as collaborative printmakers Roxy Kaczmarek, Kim-Lee Loggenberg-Tim, Sbongiseni Khulu and Jesse Shepstone introduced them to the process of making a linocut.
“Linocut is a relief printing method, and the prints you see over there are an example,” Sbongiseni explained, gesturing towards William Kentridge’s Vessels, which were in production at the workshop behind him. “You’ll be doing the same. It is a process of carving away the lino to create ‘white space’; whatever remains is what will be seen on the paper when it is printed.”
The team encouraged the group to embrace the therapeutic, meditative and deliberate qualities of printmaking, reminding them to enjoy the process and trust that their images would gradually reveal themselves through the act of carving and the nature of the medium itself.
An array of carving tools stood ready as the workshop soon filled with the diligent hubbub of paper, Sharpie pens and images being transferred onto lino sheets. The participants were eager, if a little nervous, but quickly threw themselves into the process with gusto. Slowly but surely, each unique image emerged from the surface of the lino, resulting in a surprising and compelling collection of individual works.
The DKW team then sprang into action like a finely tuned machine, producing four editions for each participant in record time. Plates were inked and carefully carried through the crowd of eager onlookers, before being printed to reveal each image in its final form. Excitement filled the workshop each time a fresh print was lifted from the paper, with the creativity of every participant celebrated by the group. As the participants signed and numbered their editions, the pride and joy of having transformed their personal reflections into something tangible and beautiful was unmistakable.
For the David Krut Workshop, projects such as these are an opportunity to open up the world of artistic practice to people who may not ordinarily encounter it. By taking participants through the hands-on process of making a print, they gain a deeper understanding of the time, skill, intention and experimentation that lie behind a work on paper. In the process, something else is unlocked: a personal connection to creativity and the confidence to engage with making in a way that may be unfamiliar to them. The experience encourages participants to see their own capacity for creative expression, while developing a greater appreciation for the work, thought and craftsmanship behind the art they encount
