For me print is an inherently political act. The automated nature of the practice removes the artists hand allowing the work to speak about the world around us far more effectively then more classical artistic disciplines.
Paint and performative art are inherently gestural making it almost impossible to separate the artist from the subject matter. Picasso's piece Guernica may have been a direct response to the horror of the bombing of a town during the Spanish civil war yet the artist himself is often a central consideration when interpreting the paintings narrative. This might be down to the paintings imagery (the bull, often thought to represent the artist himself as well as a visual metaphor for the Spanish people) or even simply and for me far more likely, that you can see the artists hand within the work. Andy Warhol may have seemed like a hideous self publicist, but the automated nature of his own practice allowed him to stimulate a far more interesting conversation about the nature of celebrity the replacement of image over authenticity and the artist relationship to his own work then, in my opinion, Lichtenstein was able to in his paintings.
For my own piece entitled "Expect Resistance" I wanted to create a design that had it's roots in Art Nouveau and the hippy poster art of the 70's. Like my sticker design the piece had originally featured lettering and the illustration of a female soldier, but it felt far too obvious and heavy handed and for me the piece works far more effectively when stripped back to its original ornamental design. I wanted the design itself to invoke a sense of strength. Which I believe it does. The design does however lack refinement, the spacing within the piece needs tightening up and more consideration needed to be taken as to how the piece might look at different sizes as I feel that the work suffers particularly at smaller sizes where it becomes confused and unreadable.
Overall I'm reasonably pleased with the piece and I only wish I'd had more time to look into and develop the work and the ideas behind it further.
