Learning Exchange with A3BC

We received funding from the Sasakawa Foundation before the pandemic to do a trip to Japan to visit A3BC, a Tokyo-based radical woodblock printing collective -- to meet with them, learn about their practice, and bring our learnings to new audiences in the UK and Europe. We had to postpone this trip multiple times due to restrictions on entering Japan during the pandemic, but finally we were able to go this year, and fortunately we were able to plan our visit to coincide with the Debordering conference and exhibition - an event involving various autonomous woodblock printing collectives across Asia, who came together to discuss their practice and local context, and display their work in a collective exhibition.

The concept of the programme was to build direct grassroots connections across borders (within East and Southeast Asia) between artists and collective working with similar media (woodblock-printing) that has foundations in local arts and crafts practices. It was interesting to see collectives with distinctive and multiple historical, cultural and artistic contexts articulate their own practice while finding common ground, especially in the context of different histories of (inter-Asian) colonisation. The idea of 'Inter-Asia' came up often, which perhaps encapsulates this idea, but is something we'd like to learn more about - we got copies of each of the 5 issues of the Inter-Asia Woodblock Mapping Series zine which documents and reflects on the work of the various collectives, which we are looking forward to reading!

At the conference, we heard from many amazing and inspiring speakers. For instance, Guangzhou-based Prickly Paper collective (pictured above), who make self-published artbooks and zines, spoke about their 'Drifting Backpack' concept, whereby a backpack full of self-published material is passed between trusted friends across different cities in China, so that otherwise proscribed material can be distributed and read while evading confiscation and censorship. We also heard from Philippines-based collective Printmaking for the People (Prints Para Sa Bayan) who have adapted their own techniques for block-printing, using more readily available materials such as rubber flip flops to create prints exploring local social issues including repressive martial law and environmental justice.

We were blown away by the exhibition which featured prints in a range of styles, from small, simple and bold prints to amazingly detailed and large scale woodblock prints. A3BC's contribution in particular titled 'Decomposers' (pictured below), was a 3 or 4 metre long scroll, which was made entirely collaboratively by members of the collective. As we learnt, A3BC's process is to discuss and deliberate collectively about the concept of a piece, which is constantly revised through discussion as the creative process unfolds. Individuals do their own research through reading books and finding artistic references, which they bring to the group and which feeds into the final piece. The piece is then collaboratively drafted in pencil, before being copied onto a woodblock for carving. The process requires the abandonment of the idea of the Individual Artist and their 'vision', in favour of collaboration and compromise. This resonated with daikon's creative work, which has always been about facilitating co-creation and community-building.

We were able to join in social events including a rowdy night at the anarchist Nantoka Bar in Koenji, and a collective printing night at Irregular Rhythm Asylum, an anarchist infoshop in the heart of Shinjuku, which is A3BC's regular meeting spot. We learnt that the space is able to sustain itself through sales from the infoshop and that Tokyo's rent is fairly cheap and stable compared to other major cities, but that there is a lack of community spaces more generally in Tokyo where people can freely meet, create, and conspire. In the case of Hong Kong collective Print How, they spoke about how they meet in the backroom of a vegan restaurant. Prickly Paper rent out a studio space in a cheaper area of Guangzhou, complete with bunkbed accommodation for visiting artists. At the printing night at Irregular Rhythm Asylum, we were able to have a go at carving our own blocks, and trying out the 'stomping' method of block-printing - placing paper or fabric on the floor with the blockprint on top, and stepping on it to transfer the ink to the material.

We were due to collaborate on a workshop with A3BC on the final day of the week-long programme, but unfortunately almost all of the collective members contracted Covid on the night we were due to meet at Irregular Rhythm Asylum to run through the workshop!! They had been working late nights together to complete the piece for the exhibition and it had probably taken its toll, on top of a lot of people mixing together for the first time in a while - they deserved a rest! Although we were sad not to be able to participate in the workshop, we were grateful to be able to enjoy an amazing week in Tokyo. The folks from A3BC gave us amazing advice for where to get materials for us to take home and useful tips about paints and techniques. We are feeling very excited to bring home our learnings and are super inspired by the collectives we got to meet and whose amazing work we got to see.