An exhibition with Test Prints from the screen-printing archive of TIND

A project by Und. Athens

In collaboration with VOID

Test prints are the prints that screen-printers and typographers make to test the quality of their inks. Printers usually keep scrap paper at hand in order to do their tests, and often print many different projects on the same piece of paper. The result is a print that has many layers of ink on it, with illustrations and patterns by different designers and projects which usually have nothing to do with each other and create a haphazard visual result.

For Athens-based screen-printer TIND, collecting test prints is an old habit. Inspired by other screen-printers abroad, he collects and archives his test prints, and some he keeps framed in his studio or he shares on social media. For TIND, the beauty of these accidental prints is found exactly in their element of chance and lack of design; after all, TIND stands for “this is not designed”, a philosophy that permeates his work in general.

Fourteen test prints from TIND’s studio are to be shown at VOID, hanging in the space as a minimal installation of colour and paper. Seven pairs of prints, corresponding to the Seven Lucky Gods of Japanese folklore; the gods who inspired the first Matryoshka dolls; the dolls who reminded us of the layers of images on TIND’s test prints; the images hidden in each print waiting to be discovered by the viewer. Projected on the wall, details from the prints are shown in large size, exploding the complexities of these images and the accidental, alchemical reactions of colour, material, form and meaning on them.

Each test print is a mesh of images, a cloud of stories. The shapes in this cloud constantly shift and move from one layer to the other, creating new shapes, exposing new connections. The randomness of these images negates authorship, but at the same time retains the distinct identity of each layer — crisp yet illogical like a lucid dream. Not surprisingly, “The Cloud Atlas” is one of TIND’s favourite recent movies. http://void.photo/ Artist website https://www.behance.net/tind_ Curated by Und. Athens http://und-athens.com/ 

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