India Street: Type Writers' Workshop
Reid Ground Floor Corridor
13 Jan - 4 Feb 2018
Preview: Friday, 12 Jan 2018, 5-7pm
Type Writers' Workshop involved students and alumni from GSA (in collaboration with the GSA Students' Association) and the National Institute of Fashion and Textiles (Gandhinagar) and took place in Glasgow and Ahmedabad on the 11th November 2017.
Type Writers' Workshop set out to explore parallels and distinctions between design and production in Scotland and India through the use of familiar letter forms and print methods. In Ahmedabad the workshop was led by Emlyn Firth, Soyab Khatri and Hitesh Malaviya from Indian Type Foundry. They worked with modular printing blocks to explore the formal qualities of Devanagari type. In Glasgow, Neil McGuire, Edwin Pickstone and Ruth Kirkby designed a modular system of Latin font to develop with letterpress.
The workshops responded to the touring exhibition India Street Bazaar, which considered the legacy of Turkey Red from the West of Scotland and how this boom-to-bust industry developed graphic motifs that emulated the local craft traditions of its many global export markets. Turkey Red was a dye process that used industrial cylinder rollers to print onto woven calico. Its cheerful and varied patterns were appealing and cheaper than the many hand-crafted textiles they resembled. Designs for the Indian market copied tie-dye, weave, embroidery and block printed fabrics.
Although Turkey Red no longer exists in Scotland, we see a resurgence of interest in traditional crafts, hand-woven fabrics and natural dyes in India. India Street set out to consider how designers can approach the design, production and commerce of their work, utilising both analogue and digital means, and contribute to a more ethical, sustainable and responsible way of working.
The exhibition will showcase the outcomes of the two parallel Type Writers' workshops.
The project has been curated by Katy West, with support from The British Council UK/IN Year of Culture 2017 and Creative Scotland.
