In Betweens

Printing is, at its core, a gesture of transfer and translation. It occupies the liminal space between surfaces, where the image is neither wholly original nor entirely a copy, but something new that emerges through the act. This “in-between” is a fertile ground for exploring paradoxes: the manual and the mechanical, the singular and the reproducible, the material and the ephemeral. As Richard S. Field argues, printmaking is a manifestation of mirrored and binary thought, yet it is also a profoundly transgressive act, challenging fixed categories and opening pathways for reinterpretation. Within this practice, the surface becomes both a site of inscription and erasure, a stage where the physicality of material intersects with the abstractions of thought.

It is within this context – laden with the transformative potential that resonates deeply with the paradoxes of human existence, the desire to anchor something in time while acknowledging the inevitability of change – that the MA Print 2024/25 cohort at the Royal College of Art presents In Betweens. This exhibition serves as a space of inquiry for artists from diverse cultural backgrounds, exploring how images and meanings are constructed and deconstructed through processes of materialisation. More than a physical space, the “in-between” is a state of flux, where traditional and digital techniques converge, engaging with temporalities and geographies in dialogue.

In Betweens reflects on the potential of printmaking as a medium to question boundaries – between artist and work, originality and replication, permanence and mutability. It celebrates uncertainty and multiplicity, recognising artistic practice as a continuous process of being between, of shifting, and of reinvention.

Private View: 23 February, 2–4pm