Edinburgh Napier University

  In 2019, the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan hosted a ground-breaking survey exhibition featuring 400 woodcuts created across Asia from the 1930s to the 2010s. Titled "Blaze Carved in the Darkness: Woodcut Movements in Asia," it was the largest and most comprehensive showcase to date. The exhibition sought to uncover thematic and stylistic patterns that have shaped the traditions of this distinctive medium across different periods and regions. The tradition of woodcut in Asia, as the title suggests, embodies a social and political movement. The strokes carved into wood have brought "blazing light in the darkness," a metaphor often invoked in political agitation. This tradition, rooted in the artistic medium of two-dimensional woodcut art, has long been a vehicle for collective expression and resistance. In this symposium on "Indonesian Graphic Printmaking," I aim to revisit the fundamental characteristics of this medium and address a pivotal question: Why has woodcut proven to be such an effective political tool? What inherent qualities make it a preferred medium for political work and activism? In exploring these questions, I hope to reveal—consistent with the symposium’s objectives—the “working character” of woodcut. A character that is born out of the reproductive nature of its production. This mechanical element, in turn, dismantles one of the most important foundations of modern art: the unique value of an artwork. Because of its multiple existence, a woodcut print loses its originality, as each edition or print is equally original, and the original is always already a copy. So, where can we locate the authenticity of woodcut prints? Drawing on historical examples as well as contemporary practices, I will argue that this very loss of traditional notions of originality imbues woodcut with its political character.