UT students collaborate with Malaysian printmaking collective
The UT School of Art welcomed Malaysian printmaking collective Pangrok Sulap this spring, a group of artists, musicians and social activists who engaged with UT students through a collaborative visiting artist seminar.
Pangrok Sulap ( “Pangrok” being the local pronunciation of “punk rock”, and “Sulap” a hut or a resting place usually used by farmers in Sabah, Borneo) empower rural and marginalized communities in Borneo through collaborative, large-scale printmaking that includes music and movement, with much of their artwork depicting scenes related to sustainability and social justice. The collective traveled to Knoxville to participate in the Big Ears Music Festival and to lead a week-long seminar alongside Beauvais Lyons, printmaking professor and Divisional Dean for Arts and Humanities.
“UT has partnered with them based on the reputation of our printmaking program,” said Lyons. The UT School of Art’s printmaking program is currently ranked third in the country among public universities and welcomes visiting artists from all over the world, many of whom work closely with students. “Students will each spend about 90 hours on the project. Before the visit, students have been reading about the group, and issues related to Borneo’s history and environment.”
During the class, the students – along with Lyons, printmaking professor Koichi Yamamoto, and Pangrok Sulap artists Adi Helmi Bin Jaini and Zayrul Rizo Bin Osman Leong – worked on a large woodcut print depicting scenes and figures from UT, Knoxville, and Appalachia. The fun, collaborative nature of the seminar made it a good fit for art students and non-majors alike, and every student had a voice in the project’s design and execution.
“It was the most fun I’ve ever had working in a group because of how equal each person and their respective ideas were,” said Bert Everitt, a physics and math major. “Despite my inexperience, I was just as much a part of the brainstorming and carving processes as the much more experience printers surrounding me.”
Catherine Ferguson, a fourth-year studio art major with a 2D concentration, said that the class had an “incredible impact” on her.
“I loved learning from them about their work, their art making process, and about their lives in Borneo,” she said. “Their printing process is so unique to anything I’ve encountered here in the States, and the fact that it relies on community effort makes it even more special to me.”
The collaboration with Pangrok Sulap not only provided an opportunity for students to learn about a different culture and new approaches to printmaking, but to “work together and discover creative solutions in each step of the project,” said Yamamoto.
“Learning how to develop ideas into visual language from the visiting artists and adapting unique method of printing expands their knowledge and alternative ways to accomplish the common goals,” he said. “I believe this experience will build confidence in working with artists from different culture and the excitement will create a ripple effect among those who participated and observed the project.”
At the end of the course, Pangrok Sulap and the students held public printmaking sessions outside the Knoxville Museum of Art, allowing visitors to learn about the collective’s social justice work in Borneo and experience community printmaking for themselves. Both the KMA printmaking sessions and the group’s exhibition reception at RED Gallery had huge turnouts, said Ferguson, creating an energizing environment and bringing people together.
“It felt like what we were working on not only really mattered and had an impact on people, but that people were genuinely excited and invested in the work and the whole process,” she said. “Seeing people so excited to take part in the process and asking so many questions, it was all really exciting and encouraging to me, as someone who is getting her degree in art.”
Learn more about Pangrok Sulap and their work here, and watch Dean Lyons discuss the group’s residency in Knoxville with WBIR at the link: