A new exhibition at Salford’s Islington Mill explores the power of collaboration by challenging six artists to produce a series of prints together inspired by group bonding exercises.
From shouting out something inappropriate during a round of word association to an awkward game of balloon volleyball with your damp-palmed boss, there are many pitfalls to the dreaded team-building exercise. A play on this bizarre ritual, new exhibition Team Building, which opens at Salford’s Islington Mill tonight, is the result of a week-long series of collaborative processes between Marion Jdanoff and Damien Tran from Berlin-based studio Palefroi and Mill residents John Powell-Jones, Steve Hockett and DR.ME’s Ryan Doyle and Mark Edwards.
Curated by Yuck Print House, the exhibition was devised to challenge each of the artists’ normal ways of working while creating a series of unique collaborative prints. Each piece is the result of either a game (a visual version of Chinese whispers between the six artists, for example) or an attempt to explore how particular printing processes can be used or adapted to lend themselves well to co-operative design. Including Risograph, screenprinting and monoprinting, the result is an impressive and coherent body of work that’s far more than the sum of its parts. Take a look at some of the collaborative Risographs below.
Team Building
Islington Mill, 1 James St, Salford
Friday 14 – Sunday 23 November, 12-6pm