Exhibition 24/11/2023
Making space for individuals and groups to interact through creative activity is the backbone of Phoebe and Liz’s shared practice. Though rooted in the print studio they facilitate across a range of processes together and share a strong belief in peer learning, and in learning being about having the opportunity to develop skills and interests, rather than formal instruction.
Print can be fantastically confusing - positive and negative space, the reversal of images, layering, reproducing, or playing with variations. This exhibition residency gave Phoebe and Liz the time and space to openly explore some of the fundamentals of print, learn together, and to collaborate as artists rather than technicians.
To maintain some of the surprise and responsiveness that facilitating others generates Phoebe and Liz used What3Words, a geo-locating system that assigns 3 random words to each 3-metre square on earth. This system shed a new light on familiar places and nudged them to explore new places and processes.
In Linelight Phoebe and Liz take elements from the surrounding landscapes and push them through various processes to describe the spaces they have created and explored together. The resulting exhibition is a large paper-based installation incorporating print and sculptural works.
Phoebe Dick and Liz Byrne
We print because of a love for the techniques and processes involved, the aesthetics that result from these processes and the accessibility of print as a medium. In the studio, we discovered a shared desire to introduce people to print and developed a collaborative facilitating practice. Over the years we have run open submission exhibitions (The Loveliest Tree 2015 and 2016) the Print symposium (Evidence of Small Behaviours 2015) as well as a whole range of other creative community projects such as the cross-border Stitching Stories in 2019.
We have both had solo print-based shows in the LSC Gallery (Phoebe I Am Here 2013 and Liz Outsider 2017) and outside of our visual practices are active in our community in other ways, such as running a local book club and the Open-Mic.
A Print Group exhibition entitled Show and Sell was held in the Leitrim Sculpture Centre from 19th January to the 3rd February 2024, celebrating 10 years of Manorhamilton Print Group.
