Two-hour workshop learning how to make blueprints using the cyanotype photographic process. The workshop is based around making prints by hand of ceramics (pottery) shards and creatively thinking about these goods as objects of Empire, linked to colonial legacies  

The workshop will be with photo artist Tracey Thorne and is part of the programme of events linked to her exhibition Intended for Jamaica at the Library of Birmingham. 

The session will provide an opportunity to learn about how the artist made a series of blueprints in the exhibition from photographs of found pottery that she discovered in the ruins of an old sugar plantation in Jamaica. During the workshop you will learn the basics of how to make cyanotypes using the sun to make prints using photographs and objects. Participants are invited to bring and found or personal pottery to the workshop. 

All materials will be provided. The workshop will be a small group of 10 people in a relaxed space making work inside and out in the yard at the Old Print Works. 

About 

Intended for Jamaica is an artist-led project responding to archives in the Boulton and Watt Collection at the Library of Birmingham.

The new work focuses on an unseen part of the archive in the collection that sheds light on the sale of Boulton and Watt Co. steam engines from Soho Foundry near Birmingham to sugar plantations in Jamaica during the nineteenth century. This story represents a missing chapter in the narrative of pioneering industrial heroes Boulton, Watt, and Murdoch, one that is interwoven with the threads of transatlantic slavery, indentured (bonded) labour, and the enduring legacies of colonialism.

The project seeks to explore the collection through artist research that has also informed fieldwork in Jamaica to create new artworks in direct response to the archival records detailing Boulton and Watt Co.'s trade with sugar plantations in Jamaica in the nineteenth century. Tracey will talk about how she came to make the work and how the project developed over many years of living on and off the island.

The exhibition will show for the first time original archive material from the Boulton & Watt Collection held at the Library of Birmingham relating to the sale of steam engines to Jamaica. The artists will exhibit new photographic works including cyanotypes made in response to the archives and field trips in Jamaica. Other archival items from the artist's own Jamaica collection and other works on show.

For details of the full exhibition programme and any access information  - click here

Workshop Details:

Starts at 12 pm. Arrive 15 mins early to grab a coffee and sign in. 

Meet inside the Old Print Works near the backyard. 

For further details contact the artist and get in touch in advance for any access requirements.

The artist-led research and exhibition is based on the work of Birmingham-based photographer and photographic artist Tracey Thorne. The project was supported by Arts Council England and the exhibition is presented in partnership with the Library of Birmingham.