Since the establishment of IAPA (international Academic Printmaking Alliance) in 2016, academic exchange on Printmaking among international academics of fine art has been increasingly frequent.

In this context, the first IAPA Grand Exhibition was held in the Imperial Ancestral Temple, Beijing in 2016, providing a panoramic view of printmaking around the world. The Second IAPA Exhibition to be held this year will focus on discussion, defining and understanding the concept of printmaking from a culture-specific perspective while showing the development of printmaking worldwide. Due to such considerations, Jingdezhen City, Jianxi Province, China is selected as the venue for the 2018 exhibition, an ancient city known as the capital of ceramics and a world renowned contemporary ceramics R&D centre.

My invitation to participate in this exhibition came from Chairman Wang Huixiang of the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing. They were looking to include the most prominent academic staff across the world working with Printmaking and wanted to showcase the work I was making. I submitted two lithographs to this exhibition, The Accelerating Exodus and The Extension. These prints are based on the architecture of the refugee camp, one using imagery of a UNHCR camp in Jordan and the other from Kutapalong in Bangladesh. I have superimposed these works with a structure based around recent developments in the efficiencies of temporary living structures, using three dimensional paper models of tents and temporary buildings being utilised by the UNHCR across disaster zones. These works push the boundaries of print using digital technologies, drawing, model-making and lithographic printing methods to realise the works.