My Winnipeg VIII

My Winnipeg VIII, Linocut, 24"x24" (60x60cm) image size, 30"x31" (76x78.5cm) paper size, 2025. 

My Winnipeg VIII is finally finished and I'm happy with the print! I tend to fiddle with little details at the end before committing to being finished carving, which always drags on the final days before printing. My Winnipeg VIII depicts parts of downtown including Winnipeg's very inconspicuous City Hall, the Concert Hall, the Planetarium and the Manitoba Museum, also McDermot Avenue with its Chicago style warehouses (where I used to have my beloved studio in the Silpit building), Old Market Square, King Street and William Avenue. 

A particular challenge was the Market Lands development, which is currently under construction and won't be finished until 2026. It covers an entire city block between Red River College and City Hall on the site of the former Public Safety building. I didn't want to leave it blank and in the end I opted to take inspiration from architectural drawings. However, since the designs have changed somewhat throughout different planning phases, I'm not entirely sure I have the latest version. I'll wait and see how the building looks in two years, and if I'm too far off I might decide to cut out that section from my printing plate and insert an updated version. 

I wrestled with what to do with The Volunteer Monument located between the Concert Hall and the Manitoba Museum, which commemorates the men of the 90th Winnipeg Battalion (Canadian troops) killed in several battles in 1885 against First Nations and Métis people. Monuments that commemorate these colonial acts have become increasingly controversial in recent years. To acknowledge this colonial history, I chose to depict The Volunteer Monument in a moment of time when it was wrapped up by Métis artist Éric Plamondon as a temporary art installation and intervention in 2024. You can read more about his art installation here. 

Printing 'My Winnipeg VIII'

Printing 'My Winnipeg VIII'! It's finally done and I'll post an image of the finished print in a separate post!

Reworking the linoleum plate

I've been re-working my linoleum plate for the My Winnipeg VIII print intermittently over the past few weeks. I've mostly just cleaned up the overall plate, but I've also changed one section a bit more. I'm sharing some of the behind the scenes edits: working with a flooring linoleum allows me to cut out sections that didn't work out well and insert a new piece with a packing tape backing. Since I was out of grey linoleum, I used some orange linoleum scraps I had lying around, which makes this process quite visible. I'm happy with the changes. Images of final print coming soon!

(Progress has been slow since it's grant writing season and deadlines are piling up for some community projects I'm involved in, so I've been mainly busy with computer work.)

My Winnipeg VIII - First Inking

December 30, 2024

First inking of the new linocut plate - My Winnipeg VIII! Seeing the image appear in black for the first time is always such an exciting and nerve wracking moment, because it shows if all the time carving the plate will work out. The first proof turned out well, but as expected the plate needs more work. I'll post an image of the finished print once the plate is reworked and edited to my satisfaction.

(Note: The video is sped up and I'm not showing the whole inking process; it takes much longer to ink the whole plate since I work on many of the details with a smaller softer brayer and I clean up some white areas with a cloth).

Carving 'My Winnipeg VIII'

December 17, 2024

For the past few weeks I've been carving this new Winnipeg print. My Winnipeg VIII should be finished and available early in the new year. It is taking me much longer to carve than anticipated, but I should have known with all the little details I'm working with. I love my micro carving tools that allow me to get lost in the details of each building!

My drawing and mapping process

November 22, 2024

A sneak peak at my drawing and mapping process for my next Winnipeg print. I'm revisiting the imagery of an etching of downtown Winnipeg I did in 2012; that edition sold out a few years ago. This version will be a 24"x24" black and white linocut. To me, many of these buildings are the heart of downtown; these are the streets and venues I continue to frequent or use as orientation markers. Can't wait to start carving soon!

Opening Ruptures and Forging Connections: Cultural Production Among 1870...

I did a presentation about my work Storied Land: (Re)Mapping Winnipeg at a conference hosted by the Centre for Transnational Mennonite Studies at the University of Winnipeg in early October. You can listen to my 15min presentation (plus Q and A at the end) starting at minute 20'. It's worth watching all the presentations featuring Armin Wiebe, (me), Di Brandt, and Andrew Unger!

Recorded October 5, 2024, at “Subjects, Settlers, Citizens: The 1870s Mennonites in Historical Context,” a conference hosted by CTMS at the University of Winnipeg (Panel 6) Moderator: Robert Zacharias Featuring: • Featuring Armin Wiebe • Miriam Rudolph, “Storied Land: (Re)mapping Winnipeg” • Di Brandt, “‘Some one came knocking / At my wee small door’: A Brief Oral History of Poetic Practices in the Mennonite Villages of Southern Manitoba, 1950s to the present, or: Notes Toward a Traditionalist Manitoba Mennonite Darp Poetics” • Andrew Unger Full conference program at https://ctms.uwinnipeg.ca/events/subj...