Megalo had an show opening last week to celebrate Helio Press’ tenth anniversary, with Helio Press: Ten Trips Around The Sun. Helio Press is a small Melbourne-based studio focus around Risograph printing. Risograph is a machine whose parents might be a photocopier and a screen printing table. Original work is scanned in, but instead of being translated into the paper via electrostatic forces and powder, the image is made into a stencil. This stencil is wrapped around the printing drum. When pushing print, liquid ink is forced through stencil and onto the page.
This might seem fairly mundane, but unlike colour photocopiers, Riso printing can produce some of the most vibrant colour separation printing around. Artist and printermakers alike have used Riso graph to blend colours and mixing tones to produce new colours. Each of the ink drums can be easily swapped out for another, meaning that 3, 4, or more colour work can be made in the space of a full day. The machines can be somewhat temperamental, reporting jams or misfeeds, requiring a ritual of troubleshooting steps repeated until the printer recognises there is nothing wrong. However, when it does get going, it moves quick.
The workshop was a lot of fun, at the very least to break out the old calligraphy gear, scrawl out a few designs and pick out the best to set them to the printer. I should do the calligraphy again in some greater capacity, but other things keep drawing my attention away. Such is life.
The Screaming Wall 
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