Faster Cheaper Bolder, an exhibition of highlights from the Hyde Park Art Center’s adult silkscreen classes, was on view in Gallery 2 from May 4 to July 20, 2008. The exhibition illustrated the classes’ exploration of the populist aspect of this art form. The posters, t-shirts and prints on paper, selected by the artists/ teachers Olivia Schreiner and Elke Claus, present the versatility and economy of the silkscreen method of art-making. The Art Center’s silkscreen classes explore the historical and contemporary use of the poster as a means of skill-learning, self-expression, and the spread of ideas.
In Elke Claus’s class Silkscreen, students learn the basic photo-emulsion-based process used to transfer their stenciled or drawn compositions onto fabric or paper. The graphic nature and easy reproduction of the silkscreen process results in an art object that highly accessible. Students study the poster as a means for revolution, protest and art and make their own personal manifestos in “Silkscreen: Posters, Propaganda, Protest,” taught by Olivia Schreiner. A means of efficiently creating and distributing propaganda, the silkscreen process has been as instrumental in large-scale social movements as it is to record albums and fabric designs. Since 2006, both Claus and Schreiner have been drawing from their own successful art practices to instruct students at the Art Center.
