The “Print Art” of Sharon Poliakine, Hila Ben Ari, and Dorit Ringart

Abstract

Poststructuralist scholarship on the print medium identifies the process of printing with standardization and mechanism, characterizing print editions through seriality and repetition. The discourse that emerges from this perspective focuses primarily on the tension between original and copy, often overlooking the material specificity of the art object and the embodied presence of the practitioners. While this position is conceptually powerful, it misses the physical aspects of the workshop. In contrast, the present study examines the specific working conditions of etching as formative influences on the artists’ modes of thought and bodily experience in ways that transcend disciplinary divisions. I define the works of Sharon Poliakine, Hila Ben Ari, and Dorit Ringart as “print art,” and demonstrate how a profound internalization of printmaking procedures is evident even in works that do not conform to conventional definitions of the medium. I argue that the circular and horizontal movements of the press, the pressure exerted in its operation, the contact between paper and plate, and the transformations both undergo are not merely technical conditions but also fertile ground into which the artists channel their worlds of meaning.