Aura of Practice as Matrix: Beyond the Expanded Field from Alternative Epistemologies to Collaborative Practices

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore the transmedial attributes of printmaking revealed through theory retrieved from the field of major mediums such as painting and sculpture and applied with a focus on the key concepts of the artist’s practice as the printmaking matrix with the attempt to move beyond the expanded field. The matrix is the mould used to cast an image, such as the copper plate, woodblock, or lithography stone, but is also considered a trace carrier in more conceptual terms. Due to the expanding heterogeneous term of printmaking, this article is limited to what can be considered analogue or hard copy printmaking (e.g., intaglio, relief, lithography), as well as its collective tools and materials (e.g., inks, plates, roller, press, acid) which can be found in a printmaking studio. The notion of aura is drawn from the German philosopher and essayist Walter Benjamin’s concept. However, it is used in a dialectical sense to accentuate the immaterial dimension of the artist’s practice which correlates with(in) the matrix.