'ArCade III,' The Third UK Open international Exhibition of Electronic Fine Art Prints
In 2001 I curated 'ArCade III,' (The Third UK Open International Exhibition of Electronic Fine Art Prints), which opened in April 2001, at Glasgow School of Art, as part of CADE 2001, Computers in Art and Design Education Conference.
'ArCade III' showed new works by significant digital artists/printmakers. It included work from over a forty-two artists, from eleven countries. Work's that bridged both traditional and digital worlds, a synthesis between new digital technological tools and traditional printmaking media such as, etching, relief printing and screen-printing. It demonstrated how printmaking, as a medium is moving away from the physicality of the print process and the authentic gesture of the hand, to ‘computer prints’ that can be completely produced through hardware and software, using devices such as digital cameras and scanner. Opening up new paradigms for fine art printmakers. The artist's hand may have had no other intervention than to manipulate the keyboard, mouse and scanner, finally signing it. The final print production is also mechanically driven, never hand-pulled. This provokes earlier debates between ‘original’ and ‘reproductive’ prints.
This Exhibition and the previous 'ArCade I and II' exhibitions I have been curating since 1994, build on my early research on ‘the impact on new technology on Fine Art Printmaking’. My initial intention behind the exhibition was to demonstrate to art and design academics and students, the opportunity of using new technology to create, on the one hand a new print medium and on the other a hybrid link between both old and new technology. In the early 1990s, when I saw this as a potential, there was little evidence of shows or articles to which students could refer. 'ArCade I,' the first International Exhibition of Electronic Fine Art Prints, and subsequently 'ArCade III' were and are intended to address some of these issues.
The 'ArCade III' exhibition travelled to various UK HE institutions during 2001 – 2002, where a series of series of symposiums around the topic of ‘The Digital Print’, were held. In 2002 it was exhibited in the State Art Museum in Novosibirsk, Siberia and Alma-Ata, Russia and Kyrgyzstan, as part of their Art Festivals.
In 2000 I received an AHRB small grants award for this exhibition and was also supported by Apple Computers Europe, Adobe UK and Macromedia. I also brought together a panel of experts for CADE’04 conference, for a participatory forum. A panel exploring ‘Digital Printmaking’ and commissioned small articles ‘On the Digital Print’, by international experts in this field, which were printed as an accompaniment to the exhibition.
All the 'ArCade' exhibitions I have curated have received international acclaim, and were reviewed in a number of digital and printmaking journals. It has also led to the formation of a Biennale of Digital Art Festival AniGma in Novosibirsk State Museum, Siberia, Russia, where I have been showing the 'ArCade II - IV' exhibitions since 1998.
My endeavour through this and previous exhibitions was to bring an infusion of excitement into the traditional mode of printmaking, So that conceptually ‘printmaking’ once more becomes relevant area in the fine art practice of the Twenty-First century.
2001
2002
"ArCade III is the third series of digital print shows arising from the digital art education field and will take the medium forward yet again."
(Mike King is Reader in Computer Art and Animation at London Guildhall University)
"Dear ArCade Artists, thank you very much for cooperation to everybody!!!! Special thank to Sue Gollifer!!! She brought this unique exhibition to Russia."
(Andre Martynov, Keeper of the Modern Collection, Novosibirsk State Art Museum, Krasny prospect, 5 Novosibirsk 630007 Russia)
"... As always Sue Gollifer curated the excellent ArCade exhibition which brought the work of international printmakers to the CADE’04..."
(M Palmer – Chair of CADE, Digital Creative, CADE conference proceedings)
