The Graphic Art Group at Kwong Wah Printing Company explores the humanistic dimensions of letterpress printing in today’s efficiency-driven digital age. This talk reflects on the role of traditional crafts in contemporary society and their potential as forms of artistic expression. The artists will share their insights and creative processes, while Nuntinee TANSRISAKUL engages with the group through her own work and teaching experience.

Exploring the Humanistic Dimensions of Traditional Craft

The Graphic Art Group, mentored by Roger, recently delved into the humanistic aspects of letterpress printing at the Kwong Wah Printing Company, a historic shop in Hong Kong managed by second-generation owner Mr. Yam. The talk reflected on how traditional crafts function in a digital age obsessed with efficiency, positioning the letterpress not just as a production tool, but as a medium for artistic expression. Roger emphasized how the painstaking process of traditional typesetting—where filling empty spaces requires physical metal blocks and takes considerable time compared to modern digital design—inspired the six mentees to deeply question how we perceive and experience time.

The Physicality of Time and Analog Nuances

Guest speaker and moderator Nuntinee Tansrisakul, an algorithmic composer and visual artist based in New York City and Bangkok, grounded the discussion by comparing the physical interactions of analog and digital technologies. Through her own projects, such as scaling up pinhole cameras for “Generative Photography” and creating variable clocks that move at distorted speeds to mimic human perception, Tansrisakul highlighted the unique traces and emotional impacts inherent in analog processes. She demonstrated how our subjective relationship with time fluctuates, and how analog mediums capture a distinct sense of presence and patience that digital formats often lack.

Searching for Meaning Through Interactive Hide-and-Seek

Mentee Sam presented an interactive installation inspired by observing Mr. Yam using a torch to search for specific typing blocks among his vast, dark collection. The artwork allows the audience to play a game of hide-and-seek with the blocks; as a participant shines a torch, the blocks actively move away and evade the light. This evasive mechanism serves as a metaphor for life’s difficult searches in an information-heavy world, suggesting that sometimes meaning is found within the evolving process of the search itself rather than the final destination.

Entropy and the Erosion of Collective Memory

Frank showcased “Entropy Process,” a collaborative piece with Roger that physically replicates the relentless flow of time and the fading of memories. The work utilizes a rapidly moving machine that continuously strikes four zinc plates, each bearing graphics that represent marriage, birthdays, the Kwong Wah print shop brand, and Hong Kong scenery. By having the machine slowly erode these symbols of human connection and local history, the installation ironically uses a tool originally meant for preservation to demonstrate how the present eventually crushes and erases the past.

Temporal Impressions and Auditory Histories

Lavinia introduced “Human Crank,” an interactive audio-visual piece focusing on time, traces, and physical sensation. Participants must firmly hold and rotate a handle covered in 3D-scanned replicas of Mr. Yam’s traditional letter blocks, which requires significant effort and leaves a temporary, fading red indentation on their skin. As the handle turns, it triggers an audio recording of ambient sounds from the print shop, effectively merging the physical reality of manual labor with an intimate auditory glimpse into Mr. Yam’s daily life and history.

Mechanical Persistence in a Bygone Era

Finally, Yu presented an installation created with his partner Isaac, which explores errors and the lost functionality of the letterpress in an era of mass production. The piece features a printing device driven by a intentionally broken clock that constantly resets, endlessly attempting—and failing—to complete a printing action. This subtle, persistent movement reflects the current state of the outpaced letterpress industry and honors Mr. Yam’s open-minded contentment with his craft’s transition from a commercial necessity to a cultural relic