SG: Hey everybody. We are here today to talk about Sopheap Pich's assignment "Imprint" and we're actually gonna give it a go ourselves. So we're going to talk about what you guys did, which was fantastic. 

JG: I'm going to get started

SG: You're already started, ok! All right!

JG: We're going to start with a lemon. Because a lot of people did food. 

SG: I think that this assignment reveals something really interesting about the materials around you. The materials around Sopheap when he started using bamboo and rattan were bamboo and rattan. And what are we surrounded with? After my search through our house? We have a lot of waste materials. 

JG: Right, we have a lot of outdated technology

SG: We have a lot of plastic. 

Together: Styrofoam 

SG: um, floppy discs. And we do have a lot of children's toys... 

JG: Yeah. 

SG: ...also, so shhhhhh don't tell them. 

JG: Look I won. I beat Sarah. I beat Sarah at shallot imprinting. 

SG: We're experimenting. 

JG: No, it's about winning.

*Screams* *Laughs*

JG: It lit up!

SG: I didn't know!

JG: Ho-boy!

SG: I did like how one of the responses used a fake flower. Like a fabric flower, which I thought was sort of an interesting comment on our society, that coming across a fake flower is often easier than coming across a real one. 

We did get a good real flower too, as it happens. 

SG: So sometimes..

JG: Someone made something really beautiful with something like this, you remember?

SG: round. yeah. There were a few. There was a jar that was really nice. 

JG: But I'm not...

SG: Meg and Lily did a lemon, but their lemon was much better. A single imprint might not be interesting, but how you repeat it and what you do with it and what happens with you do that again and again is when it gets interesting. 

JG: There was that one person who used that, like, that USB split in half. 

SG: Right. 

JG: It did make me think about how our lives are surrounded by outdated technology in a way that is very far away from, like Sopheap, you know? Oh wait, it actually worked. 

SG: Oh, cool! 

JG: Sorry there, green paint. Although I could really use that. 

SG: That'll be nice. Look, and that's absorbent.

JG: So this is what we have on the inside. Oh, it's absorbent.

SG: So, one of the assignment responses that I really liked was "Broken Barbie". So, they imprinted a Barbie onto paper, and it reminded me of this series of works that were half-performance, but also prints by Yves Klein where a woman would take her painted body and press it against a canvas or paper. It's a complicated thing, it's mostly male artists using a woman's body as a brush?

JG: Oh, I don't think it's that complicated, I think it's just sexist.

SG: (laughing) Yeah, well... But, uh, but it reminded me of that..

JG: It was sort of like, taking control, in a way that, that was kind of a woman claiming control over...

SG: over... Barbie.

JG: Yeah. So, you finished your cork.

SG: I finished my cork.

JG: It looks really good.

SG: It looks, almost, textile-like.

JG: Yeah!

SG: I think when you do a repeated pattern, it comes across as a fabric. And one person did do a t-shirt.

JG: So Sarah, one of the other ones that we both really liked, uh, involved tampons. 

SG: Yes! One person dipped unused tampons

JG: Yep!

SG: Into red paint which was an interesting color choice

JG: Yep.

SG: And I liked it, I liked, you know, talking about absorbent materials, that's certainly something that can print with better success.

I'm not sure about this. 

JG: I was so...

SG: Cool in theory.

JG: I was so excited.

SG: Sometimes, ya just have to try it.

JG: But in practice, it doesn't seem like it's as good as tampons. Oh, yours looks better... Ughhhhhh, fortunately, I'm still winning. 

SG: We also had a great submission of someone who made an imprint of their bassoon reed, and I thought that it was really nice that they used something personal.

JG: I like the bassoon reed because it reflected something about the maker, but also made for a really interesting image. 

SG: You're using the word interesting a lot, I noticed.

JG: Aghh, I'm doing bad art critique. I'm doing the kind of art critique that you specifically told me not to do. 

SG: (laughing) Yeah. Well, and speaking of items you find valuable, a few of you did imprints of books. I brought one...

JG: Oahhhh...

SG: That I thought would be okay for us to, um, uh, cut.

JG: Yup

SG: And make an imprint of, and it is the German edition of Paper Towns

JG: (poorly accented) Margos Spuren

SG: And I feel like, if you wrote a book, you have license to destroy it.

JG: That is correct. The reason we chose Margos Spuren is because I have several hundred copies of this book. My publisher, Hanser has been very kind about sending me lots and lots of them.
Sarah, I can't cut this.

SG: Mkay. This feels wrong!

JG: It's painful to watch a book be destroyed.
*grunts* Nope.

SG: It's a really well-made book.

JG: Guhhhh, gahhhd my publisher, they just, hold on--

SG: Well maybe-- oh. One thing I thought we could talk about is how Sopheap said that, you know, there's no real narrative when you're looking at, say, his imprints.

JG: Do you need to make narrative conclusions when you look at an abstract work, right? Like, a lot of times people look at Jackson Pollock's painting or whatever and say, it looks like "X" or it looks like "Y"

SG: Yeah. Right. Or even if you, like, read a wall label about it. 

JG: Oh, oh! I do think that there's meaning outside of narratives. This just feels very fragile to me, like in a beautiful way, and that's not a narrative experience, but it is a meaningful one, like it makes me think about fragility, try to understand fragility in my own life. 

SG: Well, and its also kind of freezing the ephemeral, like this stick is something that is going to rot and go away pretty quickly, but this print... may last a little bit longer, but it, it will also eventually disintegrate.

JG: Right, I mean any time, any time you're freezing the ephemeral, you have to think about the fact that you can only freeze it for so long. Maybe that's part of why it looks fragile to me. Its beautiful though.

SG: Mmhmm. I like it.

JG: Yeah. (laughs) What do you think of mine?

SG: (snickers) It's, it's painty. It's been painted. It's umm...

JG: I have completed the assignment.

SG: You have!

JG: No one can say I didn't complete the assignment! All right, I'm gonna try one more. Now that I've got it really nice and soggy. That's not bad!

SG: Yeah, that's nice!

JG: Yeah! That's a little bit better. You know Wendy White? The artist Wendy White?

SG: Yes, yeah!

JG: It looks like a really bad version of a Wendy White painting.

SG: It does! Apologies to Wendy White.

JG: Here's my terrible Wendy White.

SG: We like your work.

JG: Oh, huge fan- and, what are you saying about my work?

SG: It, it meets expectations. 

So we are gonna keep on making imprints, but we're gonna turn off the cameras.

JG: Yeah, but thanks to everyone who has participated in this Art Assignment, and all the Art Assignments, remember to tag your responses with "the art assignment"

SG: And don't forget you can go to either of our two websites, theartassignment.com or all.theartassignment.com to see what everybody has done in response to this project.

(End Screen)

SG: You just got paint on mine!

JG: I'm very sorry! I'm very sorry! This is, it's not very easy to work with!