On the outside, the Copper House Gallery in Dublin seems like a tiny little place, with a small exhibition space and not much else. Yet for such a small space the work they display, prints they have done for local illustrators, is diverse and unique to each artist. On one wall, there may be almost cartoon-like illustrations of sailors and the lucky ship’s cat, while on another shows almost Christ-like Rime of the Ancient Mariner with the albatross around his neck in muted colors to show his despair. Just to his right a devil flies down to curse a sneezing man who is not told, “bless you,” by his wife. As you near the back of the gallery, you realize the exhibition, an exhibition which this month discusses superstition, continues into a massive printing and framing space in the back with high tech scanners and printers that can reproduce a painting or illustration and capture the very nuances of the texture itself.
Copper House Gallery is one of the few places in the world to own the great archival scanner in their back room, the one capable of amazing reproductions, and they are often commissioned by museums to preserve the work hanging upon their walls in print form. Our Culture and Design teacher, Francis Curran’s friend lead us around these scanners and printers, showed us the paper they used and explained to us its importance, and let us explore their studios so that we could fully understand exactly how the banners they print for businesses and museum—the ones that stretch across entry ways and hang ten to twenty feet in length on poles to the sides of doors—are produced. It was amazing to actually see this equipment and interesting to see how the employees went about preparing and creating each individual piece, and it provided us with an idea of how a team of designers and print shop-managers all work together to produce banners and prints on a potentially large scale.
Simultaneously, we were able to experience design work from local Irish illustrators, all hung in the very place they were printed. It was wonderful to be able to go to one of these studios and actually see how it is all done, from start to finish, and provided me with a great opportunity at seeing a design space up close and personal.
Laura Hackney
Champlain Abroad Dublin, Fall 2013
Champlain College, Graphic Design, class of 2015