‘Cut and Paste’ was a three part collaboration between participants from Reimagine, Remake, Replay, Curator of Art at Ulster Museum, Anna Liesching, Seacourt Print Workshop and Thaís Muniz.
The first session took place online in June 2020, ‘Cut and Paste’ explored how collage has been used as a political tool by artists for hundreds of years. Anna delivered a presentation on the history of political collage and introduced the participants to a new acquisition, ‘Riots’ by Troy Mitchie. After the presentation Anna set participants the task of creating their own political collages, using images from the NMNI collection.
“When I acquired Troy Michie’s Riots (June 3rd– June 8TH 1947) (2019) for the collection at the start of 2020, I couldn’t wait to run a workshop looking at the history of political collage with the RRR Group. I knew they’d be excited for the subject, and to see a new acquisition just as it comes into the museum.”
“Sadly, our plans were cancelled when the museum closed in March, so I ended up giving the original talk over zoom. I found it scary how much more the resonance and meaning behind the subject had built because of the previous weeks” – Anna Liesching
‘Cut and Paste’ took place at the time of the Black Lives Matter protests and shortly after the toppling of the Colston statue in Bristol, participants created works that were inspired by these contemporary political moments.
You can read more about the first workshop and see the work produced here
Anna made a commitment to run ‘Cut and Paste’ in person as soon as practical.
The exhibition ‘Collage: A Political Act’, curated by Anna, opened at Ulster Museum, February 11th 2022. In March 2022, RRR ran its second ‘Cut and Paste’ workshop. RRR participants would finally get the opportunity to see Michie’s work first hand.
RRR participant, Irene De La Mora delivered an introductory presentation on the history of collage before leading a making session, while Anna gave an insightful tour of the exhibition. Participants then travelled to Seacourt Print Workshop in Bangor where Jessica Hollywood led a screen printing and letterpress master class. Participants created stunning prints in response to Michie’s work. These prints will be exhibited alongside ‘Riots’ in the upcoming RRR exhibition this Summer.
The themes explored in Michie’s work prompted a lot of discussion amongst the participants. We wanted to unpack this further.
For our 3rd session in the series we invited the amazing artist, designer and founder of Turbante Se, Thaís Muniz, to facilitate a workshop. Thaís states her “art practices emerge from the need of shattering the status quo when it comes to the representation of Black bodies, to empower, rescue identities & histories, building bridges and opening conversations”. Thaís introduced us to her stunning practice, which includes workshops, intervention and performance. Thaís then led a really important discussion on intersectionality, systemic racism and sexism. This discussion was invaluable as our participants continue to prepare for the exhibition, launching late June.
