Talk

Midterm Evaluation: Oliver Hambsch

This project seeks to activate the woodcut’s spectral characteristics, and create work that embraces liminality, ambiguity, contradiction and the in-between of materiality and immateriality. It proposes a synergistic relationship between print, specifically the woodcut, and spectrality, suggesting that the theory and – crucially – the practice of printmaking can be enhanced by notions of spectrality and hauntology. Not only do these ideas complement print practice, but by actively embracing the spectre within, printmaking​ gains access to knowledge which resides in the "excluded middle", the ambiguous space between binaries.

While this project is rooted in the traditional woodcut, it is trans-disciplinary and seeks to expand the woodcut beyond mere visuality. As such, the work is not constrained to image-based printmaking but embraces sound and experimental music as forms of expanded printmaking practice.

Programme

Time: 10:00 - 13:30
Date: Tuesday 10 June 2025
Location: Trykkeriet Bergen

Department: Kunst og Håndverk
Opponent: Vinicius Libardoni, Assistant Professor in Digital and Experimental Printmaking, Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw
Moderator: Victoria Browne, Associate Professor in Printmaking and Publishing, Oslo National Academy of the Arts

Schedule
10:00 – 10:10 - Coffee, meet and greet
10.10 – 10:15 - Welcome by Victoria Browne.
10:15 – 11:00 - Presentation by Oliver Hambsch 
11:00 – 11:15 - Break
11:15 – 12:00 - Discussion between Vinicius Libardoni and Oliver Hambsch.
12:00 – 12:30 - Lunch
12:30 – 12:45 - Coffee
12:45 – 13:30 - Q&A from the public.

Zoom:  Link to Zoom-meeting

Meeting ID: 684 9050 6529
Passcode: 578750

Oliver Hambsch
Oliver Hambsch is a PhD fellow at Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) and a member of the Hauntology and Spectrality Research Group based in York St. John University. He received his MFA from the University of Cape Town, Michaelis School of Fine Art in 2022. While his artistic practice is predominantly in printmaking, his trans-disciplinary approach includes music and video. A recurring theme in Hambsch’s work is his relationship with memory in its varied forms.

Vinicius Libardoni
Vinicius Libardoni's monumental installations engage with the memory of lost architectural structures through the tactility of sculptural printmaking. His artistic research explores materials as concepts of mass, weight, and gravity. By casting images in concrete, Libardoni's artistic practice has established an interdisciplinary language between craft, architecture and construction.

Victoria Browne
Victoria Browne's artistic practice explores vernacular motifs that delineate our cultural landscape. She is a printmaker working at the intersection of tacit knowledge, machine tools and digital technology. Her artistic research has led to hand-block printed wallcoverings exhibited as re-stagings, revealing the architecture structure and hauntological material of print.