FINE PRINT: Sue Coe at the Print Center

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FINE PRINT: Sue Coe at the Print Center

POSTED: Tuesday, February 2, 2010, 3:28 PM

Filed Under: Arts

Courtesy of Philagrafika

Haiti poster, by Sue Coe.

Bringing you more Philagrafika 2010 coverage twice a week, at least.

We promised in this week's cover story that Critical Mass would give you much more content on Philagrafika 2010, the brand-new international printmaking festival that's taking over this city from now until April 11.

Out first interview is with Sue Coe, whose works will be up at the Print Center (614 Latimer St., 215-735-6090) throughout the entire festival. Coe, who considers herself a journalist, opts to use printed images instead of words to explore politics and social issues. Originally hailing from England, Coe now resides in New York, which gives her an expansive perspective on pressing social concerns. She's dissected animal rights, apartheid and prisons through her stark black-and-white prints already, and for Philagrafika Festival she created an homage to fallen cherry trees.

City Paper: Who or what are your influences?
Sue Coe: They vary. This year it's Posada, the Mexican printmaker, and Munakata Shiko, a Japanese printmaker — and also help on wood-carving technique from my friend Dr. Eric Avery, who is a wonderful printmaker from America and also in this show. My biggest influence is reality, seeing the world, and trying to process what is happening through my art.

CP: Tell me about the political commentary behind your art.
SC: It comes back to that theme of power and control, who has it, and who does not and why? I am wary of telling people what to think; I do not like being told what to think. All my work is my own inquiry and despair for the state of the world, and joy in the making of art, and sharing that work with people, and getting their comments.

CP: You've changed mediums throughout your career. What is your primary medium now?
SC: This varies also. For the last two years I have worked in oil painting, which is a slower medium than I am used to — but the content dictated the form, the history of circus elephants in America. This year it will be all woodcuts, a medium I love because it's so simple. You need no real equipment, [just] some wood to cut marks into — it can be any found wood, from some old furniture or scraps, and you can carve into them with knife, and then use just a wooden spoon or round wooden door handle to rub the back of paper.

And sometimes ... magic happens. For sure, you have no idea what it will look like. The grain and age of the wood will give a resonance to your image. The basis of all the mediums is drawing — it's the skeleton of any body of work — so that is my primary medium, and again, all you need is a pencil and some paper, and so armed, you can go anywhere and record anything. I love the elegance of black and white, and the ability to respond quickly to events through art.

CP: Can you describe your exhibit for the Philagrafika festival?
SC: The wood blocks used to be cherry trees that were cut down to make way for a giant gas line that came from Canada to N.Y. I saw them fall, and then lay on the ground dead, and wanted to give them back some life by making art with them. It's the theme of how we humans only see what we want to see, what is being concealed, and our power relationship to other creatures. We also have made some very cheap prints, and a pamphlet called Blindsight, to donate for a local animal rescue group called Main Line Animal Rescue. This is linked to the print I did of Michael Vick. That way people can get some little token piece of art, and have their money go to a good cause.

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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