5 Press

5 PRESS is a Melbourne based art collective experimenting within the artist book medium, with particular focus placed on handmade forms and traditional printmaking techniques. 5 Press was founded in 2015 by 5 artists: August Carpenter, Cheralyn Lim, Sarah McConnell, Jaime Powell and Sophie Westerman. Together they have participated in book fairs and art fairs across Australia and internationally. 5 Press are represented in a number of private and public collections including the National Library of Australia, the State Library of Victoria, and the University of Melbourne.

Tell us about 5 Press. Who are you, what brought you together and what drives your practice?

Sophie Westerman: 5 Press started in 2015 as a collective between five Melbourne/Naarm based artists. We had all met at university, Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), though we weren't necessarily close friends, [and] weren't in the same departments. We reconnected at the first Melbourne Art Book Fair at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), and discovered a shared love of artist books. We were interested to start doing something together in relation to artist books, printmaking and traditional bookbinding techniques. We've operated as a collective since then, focusing on handmade small editions or one-off artist books. We've exhibited mainly through art fairs: Melbourne Art Book Fairs, Volume Art Fair, Sydney Contemporary, and Singapore Art Book Fair. Currently there's three of us active in the collective, but there's always opportunities in the future for that to change and for it to evolve. 

I am an artist who primarily works in printmaking [and] works on paper, working with etching and lithography for the most part. I make a lot of work that's focused on minimal, architectural style landscapes.

Sarah McConnell: I live and work on Wurundjeri Country in Naarm. Most of my work is monoprints specifically, but I also like to do etchings and aquatints and things like that. A lot of my work centers around some of the activism that's been happening around Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales. I'm specifically interested in telling the story of when people stand up against something that they don't agree with, and how that all plays out. It feels like an excuse to have conversations with people about issues that I care about. Aside from that, I like making abstract stuff when I'm a bit overwhelmed by all of the problems in the world.

August Carpenter: I live and work on Wurundjeri Country as well. I mostly work on monotypes, etchings and drawings. I'm very lucky to be represented by Australian Galleries, who've been incredibly supportive and encouraging of my practice. My work focuses on landscapes, but very much the idea of a place changing and how we perceive places to change in our memory within our current rapid state of climate collapse.

What inspired your collective dedication to artist books?

Sarah: Having run into each other at the first Melbourne Book Fair, we were all in the headspace of ‘artist books are so exciting, they're so fun’. I was making artist books in my last year [at] VCA and to have an event that was centered around the idea of the artist book and celebrating that, it blew my mind. So when we each ran into different combinations of people and thought, ‘Oh, I really love your work, we should collaborate on something’, then that happened over and over again, we [thought] maybe we should just start a collective and use it as an excuse to start making artist books. Then coming to the book fairs and using that as a collective space to justify making books because it's so much work, it's quite an undertaking. 

Also, the idea of an artist book appeals to me because I often feel very unsure of my work and I don't really like anything standing on its own, but as a collection of things, I can feel quite excited about lots of the stuff that I make. So it just makes sense to me to have books as the way to think about the work. Nothing is on its own. 

August: We were all freshly out of university or out of art school, within that first year, and navigating that weird space where you no longer have that amazing cohort of people that you're working with in your studios every day. So at least for me, 5 Press held me accountable to keep trying to make work and also to develop new skills. We (Sarah and I) learn a lot from the printmakers in the group because we were both drawers. 

[The work we made] wasn't my first print, but it was my first print with an aluminum plate lithograph that Jamie forced Sarah and I–not forced–but she encouraged us to try this kind of printmaking. We pulled back those first prints and it was like, ‘Oh man’. 

Sarah: [Printmaking is] very exciting. I think it's important to have the collective as a reason to come together and try new things. I don't think that [printmaking] would have ever happened [in my practice]. 

August: Never! In fact, at art school, I think I was like, ‘I'm not interested in printmaking!’.

Sarah: At art school, I was very interested in printmaking, but August and I were both in the drawing department, so we didn't have heaps of time in the print studio. I think the first time both of us made a book was with Adrian Kellett from the printmaking department in first year uni, and he showed us how to bind a book. I think both of us just fell in love with it as an object. 

Sophie: It's great [to see], because we'd make our separate work and we'd bring it together for the book fair and then you'd see everyone else's and that would inspire all these ideas. You know, like, ‘Oh, I didn't know about Japanese four-hole stab binding’. And then the next time [I make a book], I'll make a Japanese four-hole stab binding book. Then someone else will see something, ‘Oh, a concertina. I'll try a concertina next time’. It was really encouraging. 

How do your distinct independent practices inform your collaboration as 5 Press, and vice versa?

Sophie: If it wasn't for the collective, I probably wouldn't ever make artist books. My interest grew from seeing everyone else do it and the amazing things that they could do. It's [also] been a great outlet, having my individual practice, which I started at university, and this separate practice within this collective. It's been a good space for experimentation and ideas, which maybe don't quite fit with what I'm currently working on. It's a way to try out different things and resolve them, and they may eventually cross over into my main practice, but it feels like a freeing space without expectations and a really supportive space to work on things.

August: It's also worth noting that within the umbrella of 5 Press, we have different tiers of collaboration. Prior to 5 Press, Sarah and I had collaborated together on a body of drawings and an exhibition. Sophie and Jamie had [also] collaborated together. Those relationships have continued and changed, and new pairings within 5 Press, like Jamie and Cheralyn, have collaborated on quite a few books together. So that's one level of collaboration, and then we have skill-share and techniques, and critical analysis of each other's work. We can be brutal sometimes. It's a special thing to have a comfortableness with people that you can be like, ‘this isn't your best’ or ‘you're onto something’, and it's good to have that. 

Sarah: Also knowing the history of each other's work, because we went through university alongside each other, even if we weren't working in the same department. It makes a huge difference to our understanding of each other's work and what parts to bring out or be excited about. Things make sense in context.

August: We also have the collaborative works that we've engaged all five of us on, [which] is two major [projects]: two series of books. They were large monotypes where we all worked on the same plate together. It was chaotic. We called that project Conversations, because each mark made was a conversation happening with the next mark, removing things and adding things. I think that's probably my favorite thing we've done with 5 Press.

Sarah: I think that maybe I wouldn't be printmaking if I wasn't in 5 Press because I wouldn't have had that kind of impetus to keep trying and keep making mistakes and keep accessing studios, when I don't really feel like I know much about what I'm doing. To have Sophie and Jamie, the printmakers in the group, to really back us and help us. Sophie's printed my work before when I needed help or haven't been able to or I didn't have access to a press. Sophie printed some of my aquatint plates, which has been an awesome way of collaborating as well.

It's not only about criticism, it's also about getting really excited about something new that someone's made and for me, that's so invaluable because I hate absolutely everything that I do and I think everything is bad [laughs].

August: But then in three months, you’ll be saying you love this!

I feel like I can run to you guys and be like, ‘I found this new glue or ink’. No one else wants to know about that ever. 

Sophie: Particularly with printmaking, you have this vision in your head and you work so hard on a plate or something, and then you finally get around to printing it after hours of work, and it is nothing like you wanted it to be. You just need someone in that moment to say “it's going to be okay”.

You have participated in many major art book fairs across local, national and international contexts. How have you found these experiences and what have you learnt along the way?

August: The best part is the day before the book fair or maybe the week before, if we're very organised. 

Sarah & Sophie: We're never organised. 

August: The day before, where we get together and we reveal our finished books. If you celebrate Christmas, it's like Christmas. Unwrapping everyone's beautiful tissue paper covered books and you get to see what we've each been working on. 

Sarah: But usually when we're doing that process, we're unveiling it because we've got to put some titles on it and sign it and get it to dry.

August: Shh. Maybe, but that's the best part of the whole experience: that moment when we see what we've each been working on and see the finished products. For me, the second best part is meeting [people]. Like at Sydney Contemporary, you spend a week surrounded by other printmakers and paper enthusiasts, and it's like going to print camp. You just nerd out and enjoy everyone else's work. 

Sarah: Getting to be around those people over and over again, every year for an extended period of time, you get to marinate in what's exciting about people's work and have great conversations and it's really inspiring. For me, going to these different art fairs or book fairs is the thing that keeps me excited about the medium because I'm not just focused [on what we’re doing], I'm looking at and getting excited about what everyone's doing. 

August: And the audience is different. The audience for paper and artists books in Sydney is very different to the audience in Melbourne, so each experience is different. Again, when we went to Queensland and Singapore, it was actually drastically different. 

Sarah: The culture between Sydney and Melbourne, and the way people think about art in Sydney and Melbourne, it seems to be quite different. 

Sophie: There are different types of fairs as well, which is interesting. Going to Sydney Contemporary, it's a general art fair, with all sorts of mediums. Then Melbourne Artist Book Fair is just artist books. One's a paid event and one's a free event on the weekend. I really enjoy seeing people interact with the work because I feel, especially artist books, [they] don't exist unless someone's actually looking at them and handling them. That's when they come alive. We don't do any white gloves, we love it when people pick things up and have a look. We're always encouraging people because they're a bit nervous. It changes the way you might go about making things in the future, seeing how someone interacts with a certain structure of a book and it can open up new things for you as well. I also love the conversations you have with other stallholders and the people you meet. I always remember one person saying that a book, an artist book, is like a little mini exhibition, each page is like a different work on the wall. Instead of going to a gallery and walking through an exhibition, it's like an exhibition in your hands that you can take with you, which always stuck with me. And you get some strange interactions, like people smell the books and rub them on their face.

Sarah: I do that all the time [laughs]. 

August: We had one guest say, “what do you do with this? Can I stick pictures in this?” [laughs].

Where do you see 5 Press in the future and what is your vision for the collective ongoing?

August: This is our 10th birthday, isn't it? 

Sarah & Sophie: Next year. 

Sophie: The first book fair we did was Volume 2015, in September 2015. 

Sarah: Every time we get together, we have ideas that we want to do an exhibition or a retrospective or have an exhibition of books with prints on the walls. But we're all so busy, it just hasn't happened yet. Maybe for our 10th anniversary, we'll do it. 

August: We worked it out last year that there were over 70 different titles that we've done collectively. 

We're going to Sydney contemporary in September, that's about it on the horizon for now. Everyone has really active careers, goals and lives at the moment. It's a special thing that, at the moment, we're each able to move in and out of 5 Press, and put what we are able to put into it and then it exists as an evolving entity. 

Sarah: I think the benefit of being in a collective [is], if you have a bit less time because you've got a lot going on in some other aspect of your life, it's okay because there's five of you, or three of you, or however many people. We have strength as a group for that reason.

Sophie: It speaks to the fact that where we were when we first got together was fairly fresh out of art school and university. It is a really nice thing to see how supporting each other and encouraging each other has led to these amazing things for the collective, but also for everyone individually. It's great to see it when people do their master's degree or have these great exhibitions and things like that. So we have less time, but it's also for really good reasons, which is quite nice. 

Sarah: And a win for any of us individually is a win for the collective.

Are there any female printmakers | artists that you’re fans of right now?

Sarah: My favorite female printmaker at the moment is Elisabeth Cummings, she's amazing. Initially a painter, she's been doing monoprints and incredible etchings through Cicada Press, who print work in Sydney. I have one of her large abstract landscapes of Akaroola, which is a place that I've been going to a bit last year, and it's just mind blowing. So, so great. 

August: Laura Jones, her monotypes. She's just won the Archibald, so cool. Her monotypes [are] amazing,  she prints them at Whaling Road. Julie Mehretu, beautiful large scale etchings that’re mind blowing when you see them in real life. There's a British artist called Faye Wei Wei and she's a painter, but again, her monotypes are so soft, so subtle and just divine. Anna Higgins’ show at Negative Press, incredible screenprint. Maria Wæhrens, her use of colour in her monotypes is divine. 

Sophie: I really like what Allie Webb's doing at the moment because it feels like a throwback to thegreat Australian female relief printers of the 20th century, but in a contemporary way. I like that it's this traditional medium, traditional look, but still feels so contemporary. One of my all time favorites: I love Mamma Andersson's etchings she did at Crown Point Press. I do find it really interesting when people who aren't usually printmakers cross over into the medium. I think you can get some really fantastic results because they're not as restricted by all the technical things. Tracey Emin’s etchings as well, which I absolutely love. Deborah Walker, someone who I recently discovered, all her beautifully drawn lithographs and etchings. I really like her style, very simple drawings that are black and white, but really evocative. 

August: I just went to Katy Hessel's talk at the NGV and she said she only knew less than 20 female identifying artists' names when she began writing her book, The Story of Art Without Men. I went home from that and I was like, right, how many do I know? And I was sad, so I've been making a conscious effort [to learn more]. 

More artists: Tacita Dean, Herta Kluge-Pott, Mandy Martin, Aiko Robinson and Aida Tomescu.

Finally, what exciting projects are you working on at the moment?

August: I have a solo show coming up at Australian Galleries in October. I think I will be excited about it, but right now I'm just overthinking everything that I'm putting into that, but I am very excited. So that will open on the 22nd of October. I am also in the process of finishing two artist books that began while I was the State Library of Victoria Fellow with the Baldessin Studio in 2019. Then we went into lockdowns and my project just blew out and it's huge. It's a monster. Now there are two books coming out of that. I'm trying to finish those at the moment. I actually work at the Baldessin Press & Studio now, which is a wonderful studio to work and print at.

Sarah: And we're [with August] also in Rona Green's print project for next year. 

August: Rona Green and Thomas Middlemost are curating a print project, so there'll be an exhibition in Wagga Wagga next year with 28 printmakers. 

Sophie: [I’m] working on stuff for Sydney Contemporary. I think we're all doing new, larger scale print works, which Sarah and August are literally working on at this moment in the studio. We're all doing like brand new sets of work for that. 

August Carpenter

August Carpenter uses a drawing and print based practice as a platform to examine interactions between person and place, specifically during this time of rapid climate collapse. Born in London in 1989, she is currently living and working on Wurundjeri land. August is represented by Australian Galleries - Melbourne & Sydney.

Currently an artist-in-residence at the Dunmoochin Foundation, in 2023 she was the recipient of the James Northfield Lithography Scholarship at the Australian Print Workshop, and in 2019 she was the recipient of the Tate Adams Memorial Fellowship at Baldessin Studio & the State Library of Victoria. 

www.augustcarpenter.com

www.instagram.com/augustcarpenter/

www.australiangalleries.com.au/artists/august-carpenter/ 

Sarah McConnell

Sarah McConnell is an artist, cartoonist and environmental activist living and working on Wurundjeri country. She has been published in Meanjin and Going Down Swinging and has spent several years as Program Coordinator at the Sustainable Living Foundation. Her work often centres around environmental and social issues and the moments of resistance by small groups of people who strive to change them.

McConnell completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in Drawing at the Victorian College of the Arts & Music in 2011, and the Sustainability Leadership Fellowship program at the Centre for Sustainability Leadership in 2014. She has previously taught drawing at LaTrobe College of Art and Design and currently sits on the board of CLIMARTE, organisers of the biennial festival ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE. McConnell’s work appears in the collections the National Library, State Library of Victoria and Charles Sturt University.

Born 1990, Melbourne, Australia.

https://sarah-mcconnell.com.au/

https://www.instagram.com/smcconnell25/

Sophie Westerman

Sophie Westerman is an artist living and working on Wurundjeri land . Her practice focuses on printmaking, in particular etching and lithography which she uses to create quiet and minimal compositions. Her work is concerned with intimacy and memory, often using domestic motifs such as houses or quilts. She draws upon her interest in architecture and literature with her writing practice informing her titles, charging her images with narrative and emotion.

Westerman completed a Bachelor of Fine Art (Printmaking) in 2011 and a Graduate Diploma in Arts (Creative Writing) in 2013. She was awarded the James Northfield Lithography Scholarship from the Australian Print Workshop in 2015 and in 2019 her artwork was selected for the Melbourne Art Tram series as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival. She was selected to be part of the Melbourne Now Print Portfolio by the National Gallery of Victoria in 2023.

www.sophiewesterman.com/

www.instagram.com/sopwest/